Happy shopping day, folks! Here’s your ol’ pal Baggedmilk with the 2020 edition of the NHL Trade Deadline Live Blog! Are you excited? I’m excited. I’m excited to be here all day, bringing you all of the Oilers related news that may or may not even happen. Are you ready? Of course you are.
Do you remember when the NHL trade deadline day was a major event on your sports calendar? I remember taking a day off work to watch Ryan Smyth end up getting traded to the New York Islanders only moments after Eklund had said he signed a new deal with the Oilers. *whistles* That was a hell of a day, friends. A sad one. An emotional one. That was back in a time before Twitter when trade deadline day was circled on your calendar as a reminder of when all of the action happened, quite unlike the slow drip of depth deals that end up going down these days. Do you remember those days? We’ve been watching trades around the league for weeks now, and here in 2020, I’m just hoping we’ll have something good to argue about. And even though I don’t expect the Oilers to be all that busy today, I’m betting on maybe a depth add or two over and above the Mike Green trade from last night, I’ll still be glued to the Internet machine to bring you all of the news that may or may not happen.
Let’s get to it…

THE TRADING POST

Looking through the contracts at PuckPedia, the Oilers do have a few expiring contracts that they might consider moving provided that Ken Holland would actually want to pull the trigger. That said, they’re in the midst of a playoffs push so I highly doubt any of them will move, but I’m also a big subscriber of the whole ‘what the hell do I know’ lifestyle when it comes to this team and stranger things have certainly happened.

UFAs & RFAs

@Sam Gagner – If Ken Holland is looking to cut some salary ahead of today’s deadline then Sam Gagner’s contract is one that he’d probably be able to move. Personally, I think Gagner is still a valuable depth player on this team and I can’t see any reason to trade him outside of cap savings or as a part of a bigger deal, but I can also imagine scenarios where other teams would be interested in him. Bye, Sam.
@Josh Archibald – Nope. Not gonna happen. Movin’ on. I love this dude.
@Riley Sheahan – Same likelihood of getting moved as Archibald. Let’s move on.
@Markus Granlund – Anybody looking for dry toast? Maybe you’re making a caesar salad and looking for croutons?
@Brandon Manning – Dare to dream? Why not? I’m a dreamer.

THE BIG QUESTION

@Jesse Puljujarvi – It’s been another crazy year for the former fourth overall pick as his breakup with the Edmonton Oilers organization continues to hang around like stale farts. While many agree that the organization completely bungled his development over the first three years of his career, Puljujarvi has taken a few arrows around here this season for his refusal to report to the team that drafted him despite having a new coach and general manager in place. Will Puljujarvi be traded? I doubt it. We’ll see.

UNDER CONTRACT

@Matt Benning – I’m including Matt Benning on the list as an option because I think he’s a guy that other teams probably value more than some folks around here do. Personally, I’m a Benning guy and I don’t think that trading him right now would be the best idea but I also know that you have to give to get, and with the addition of Mike Green to the back end then maybe Benning’s time is up.
@Adam Larsson – Along the same lines as Benning, I can’t really see Larsson being moved unless the return is something substantial, but you just never know what plans Old Dutch has up his sleeve. It’s not that acquiring Mike Green has made him expendable, but there is now a logjam on that right side which could mean that someone shakes loose and I’d suspect that Larsson has sizeable value around the NHL.
@Kris Russell – The shot blocking cowboy is the kind of player that teams love to pick up around the deadline, but I don’t know how many of them would necessarily want to tack on his $4 million cap hit for another year despite the real dollars being a very manageable $1.5 million.
@Jujhar Khaira – It hasn’t been a very fun year for Khaira outside of a short heater he was on back in November, and I wonder if Holland would consider moving him in favour of giving someone else a chance to play. Despite his struggles to score, he has only a single assist in his last 17 games, Khaira has still been contributing on the PK but I wonder if that’s enough to keep him in the lineup?

RUMOURS

Since I don’t really have an adult job, I’ll be spending most of my day cruising the Internet for Oilers news. If I find any rumblings or rumours while wading through the weeds, I will make sure to put them here. For those of you that have resisted the urge to join the devil that is social media, this will be the spot to watch to for any tidbits from the insiders, beat guys, or otherwise.

HILARIOUS OVERREACTIONS

This year, I thought it would be funny to post some of the most over the top reactions to some of the trades that happened today from around the league. If there’s one thing Twitter is good for, it’s finding complete nonsense in regards to any topic on earth and I want to bring a little sliver of that deliciously dumb pie into this year’s Live Blog.

THE UPDATES

Don’t care about my nonsense and want to skip right to the updates? This is the section for you, friend.
  • 8:00 am MT – Rise and Shine, Nation. It’s deadline day.
  • 8:06 am MT – Wooooo that JG Pageau trade was expensive (1st and 2nd in 2020, 3rd in 2021 if the Isles win the Cup). No wonder Holland avoided that one. I do wonder where Old Dutch was at with Nemesnikov out of New York because Colorado got him for cheap (4th in 2021)
  • 8:31 am MT – I don’t remember the last time we saw this many trades this early on deadline day. Maybe it will a fun day after all?
  • 8:47 am MT – According to some folks on Twitter, the Oilers sneakily put Kris Russell on the LTIR last night which opens up some cap space for them moving forward. Not sure why they didn’t announce the move but it makes me think Holland may have something going on that we may not expect. Maybe? Dare to dream.
  • 9:30 am MT – Oilers just announced that Mike Green will wear #27. I wonder if he asked Adam Clendening or that other guy if it was cool that he wore his number?
  • 9:40 am MT – Mike Commodore is saying the Oilers are picking up Mike Hoffman but who the hell knows if that’s true or not. He also said Tyler Ennis was an Oiler two days ago. We wait…
  • 10:33 am MT – Alright, nobody do anything. I have to drive to Nation HQ. Thank you.
  • 11:13 am MT – Holy hell the Oilers just traded for Andreas Athanasiou! Wow.
  • 11:23 am MT – According to Darren Dreger, the Oilers gave up two 2nd rounders for Athanasiou.
  • 11:40 am MT – Scratch that, it’s two second rounders + Sam Gagner for Athanasiou and Ryan Kuffner.
  • 12:01 pm MT – The Oilers just picked up Tyler Ennis for a 5th round pick in 2021. WOW!
  • 12:20 pm MT – I don’t know what to do with my hands. I don’t remember the last time the Oilers were buyers at the deadline, let alone this active.
  • 1:00 pm MT – THAT’S THE BUZZER! PENCILS DOWN! Though, trades can still trickle in for the next hour or so.
  • 1:05 pm MT – Ryan Rishaug just tweeted that the Oilers are done for the day. Solid day imo.
  • 2:14 pm MT – Tom Gazzola just tweeted that the Oilers have another minor league deal coming.