Edmonton Oilers willing to trade up or trade back at NHL draft

The Edmonton Oilers are preparing for a number of situations that involve either trading up or trading down at the NHL draft.

The first round of the draft, set for next Tuesday evening, sees the Oilers drafting 14th overall in what’s been considered to be a deep first round.

Oilers director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright joined OilersNow with Bob Stauffer Friday, where he said the organization has a target at 14.

“You’ve got to get creative. I challenged all the scouts to bring me ideas on how we can get better, what we can do differently,” Wright said. “We’ve got no room for error. Every pick we make next Tuesday and Wednesday has an element we want to exploit going forward.”

Wright also said that the Oilers are also targeting the best player available in the first round of the draft.

“We have needs, 100%, but we’re taking the best player available,” added Wright. “Who is going to move the needle?”

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens over the next week and on Tuesday, specifically. 14th overall is a valuable draft pick the Oilers could dangle in the trade market, or use to recoup some assets later in the draft.

Edmonton has no draft picks in the second or fourth round, and have to give either this years, or next years third round pick to the Calgary Flames.

On Twitter: @zjlaing

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