The Edmonton Oilers are going to be hosting some familiar names Tuesday: Unrestricted free agents Milan Lucic and Jason Demers are coming to visit the city.

None of this is terribly surprising. 

Demers is an obvious player for the Oilers to take a look at. The only significant right-shooting defenceman in free agency has a long history with Edmonton coach Todd McLellan and may represent the Oilers’ best chance at addressing their position of greatest need. If general manager Peter Chiarelli can’t author a trade for a top-four defenceman, Demers is basically his only other option. 

The trouble with Demers is that he doesn’t have a history of being a top-pair defenceman. His underlying numbers are good and if signed he’d have incredibly small shoes to fill, but it’s hard to imagine that he’s Plan A for Edmonton – particularly given the contract he’s certain to be able to extract from the team. 

Rishaug isn’t the first reporter to suggest a six-year deal for Lucic. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press made the same observation this past weekend while looking at the power winger as an option for the Red Wings:

Such a signing would obviously necessitate another move, as Rishaug speculates: 

The addition of Lucic would at least theoretically allow Edmonton to move Hall to land a right-shot defenceman, and it’s easy enough to understand the appeal of such a scenario. There may well be players out there who only become available as options to the Oilers if Edmonton sends Hall the other way.

The problem, of course, is that Lucic isn’t as good of a player as Hall, either in terms of shot metrics or scoring numbers. Lucic is 28, and we’re arguably starting to see the first signs of erosion in his game. Hall isn’t even 25 yet and his next two seasons are apt to be the most productive of his career. Additionally, any trade of Hall would put an end to the idea of one forward line built on his talents and another built on Connor McDavid; Edmonton instantly becomes easier for opposition coaches to line-match against. 

It’s still possible for such a trade to make sense if the defenceman coming back is good enough, but it’s a dangerous game to play. 

I also wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of Benoit Pouliot being dealt in the event of a Lucic signing. There are all sorts of ways to fit a Hall/Lucic 1-2 punch on the left side under the salary cap, and especially so if Patrick Maroon and his cheap contract are filling the No. 3 hole. Buying out Lauri Korpikoski, trading away Matt Hendricks (and filling his slot with a cheaper option) and moving Pouliot to another team would clear away the $6.0 million or so Lucic is likely to cost. 

Pouliot’s speed will be attractive to other NHL teams, but I highly doubt he brings in the kind of defencemen Edmonton needs in the event of a trade. 

Kris Russell is not a better defenceman than Andrej Sekera or Oscar Klefbom, and I wouldn’t take him over Brandon Davidson, either. He’s 29 years old, undersized, fares poorly by virtually every enhanced statistic and is pretty much guaranteed a rich contract in free agency this summer. 

There’s no reason for the Oilers to be interested in Russell, and yet here we are. 

These are interesting times for Edmonton, and the signs are certainly there that Chiarelli is at least considering a massive change in direction for the team. Great change, awful change, and the old standby of almost change are all potential paths forward, and today’s news doesn’t do much to clear up which route the Oilers are going to take.