The last 36 hours or so have been all about Travis Hamonic. For the Edmonton Oilers, the possibility of landing Hamonic is tantalizing. He’s a perfect fit for positional need, his age, cap hit and experience level are all extremely appealing, and he even wants to come to Western Canada. Colleagues Jason Gregor and Matt Henderson have both written on the subject already, and that’s just at this website.

It’s a shame then that a trade which sees Hamonic land in Edmonton seems so unlikely.

Hockey’s big-name insiders were understandably in high demand in Canada with the news, and they took to the radio. Chris Nichols spends a good portion of his time making sure that what’s said over the air makes it to the internet; here’s a selected sample of his transcription:

It has been widely reported—including in Elliotte Friedman’s initial piece breaking the story—that New York wants a similar player in exchange. Edmonton doesn’t have one.

Newsday’s Arthur Staple, in confirming the report, noted that Hamonic made his request prior to the start of the season. The Oilers and Islanders made a trade in the summer involving defenceman Griffin Reinhart, and it’s hard to imagine Edmonton would have grabbed Reinhart if it could reasonably have landed Hamonic instead. LeBrun confirms that Edmonton general manager Peter Chiarelli has been talking to the Isles about this for a long time; if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s hard to see how the news going public is going to change things.

Trading a forward (Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Leon Draisaitl, insert-name-here) doesn’t work because the Islanders are loaded with forwards. They need help on defence if they move Hamonic. 

Trading Darnell Nurse is a solution which likely works for neither side. It didn’t make sense for the Oilers to trade Nurse for Dougie Hamilton in the summer, and Hamilton is a younger defenceman with a potentially higher ceiling than Hamonic. Nurse doesn’t address the Isles’ need for a defenceman who will help them win a Stanley Cup this year.

Oscar Klefbom is problematic for similar reasons. I’m not convinced that it’s a bad trade for the Oilers; Hamonic played much the same role for the Islanders at Klefbom’s age that Klefbom is now playing for the Oilers. But Klefbom’s age is probably a better fit for a team planning to win with Connor McDavid, and Hamonic’s age is certainly a better fit for a team planning to win with John Tavares.

What about a three-way deal, where the Oilers brought in a good, young defenceman and then flipped him to the Islanders for Hamonic? That makes sense, except that it seems entirely obvious that Chiarelli has been shaking the trees for good, young defencemen for ages and settled for Griffin Reinhart because that was the best he could do. If he could turn around and get a good, young defender he’d likely have already done it, and if he managed to land Seth Jones or Adam Larsson or whoever he wouldn’t necessarily have any incentive to flip that player for Hamonic because that player would already be filling the Oilers’ obvious defensive hole.

All of that makes it very difficult to imagine a scenario where Hamonic lands in Edmonton mid-season. Things might be different in the summer, but right now it would be a surprise if the Oilers and Islanders could reach a deal which satisfied both parties.