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NHL Notebook: Recapping a wild weekend of trades and a look at where the Edmonton Oilers sit in pre-deadline power rankings

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Photo credit:Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
1 year ago
Boy, what a weekend for NHL action.
From Timo Meier, to David Poile, to Tanner Jeannot, there was no lack of storylines.
On Saturday, we saw three trades shake out. The biggest was the Nashville Predators shipping winger Nino Neiderreiter to the Winnipeg Jets for a 2024 2nd-round pick. I absolutely love this move for the Jets. They’ve been struggling to drive play offensively this year, and Niederreiter is one of the more underrated offensive drivers in the league. This year, he’s scored 18 goals and 28 points through 56 games with his goal-per-game clip just shy of his career high.
The Vancouver Canucks acquired Vitali Kravstov in exchange for prospect William Lockwood and a 2026 7th-round pick. This was a fairly minor deal in once sense of the term, but it provides Kravstov a great chance to rebound with some familiar Russian faces around him.
Lastly, the smallest of them all, the Colorado Avalanche acquired goaltender Keith Kinkaid from the Boston Bruins in exchange for prospect Shane Bowers. This gives the Avalanche some further goaltending depth ahead of the playoffs, but I’m a little surprised they gave up Bowers. He looks to be a good prospect.
On Sunday, things got crazy. The Montreal Canadiens shipped Evgenii Dadonov with 50% of his salary retained to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Denis Gurianov. I like this one for Dallas, as Dadonov is an upgrade offensively.
Another few moves impacting the west happened, too. Ivan Barbashev was shipped from the St. Louis Blues to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for another good prospect in Zach Dean. This will help Vegas provide a little more offence through their lineup.
The Colorado Avalanche brought back Jack Johnson, who might be the best “in the room guy” in the entire NHL, in exchange for defenceman Andreas Englund. This one screams to be a move that Avs GM Chris MacFarland made knowing the off-ice impacts Johnson has.
And the biggest move so far, the Timo Meier deal. He, along with Scott Harrington, Santeri Hatakka, Zachary Emond, Timur Ibragimov and a 2024 5th-round pick, got shipped off to the New Jersey Devils. In return, the Sharks got back prospects Shakir Mukhamadullin, Fabian Zetterlund, Nikita Okhotyuk and Andreas Johnsson, as well as a conditional 2023 1st-round pick, a conditional 2024 2nd-round pick, and a 7th round pick in 2024. There are a number of conditions on the deal, which can be seen here, but this really feels like a “quantity over quality” move from the Sharks. Mukhamadullin is a solid prospect projecting for top-four minutes down the road, but the other players are largely long-shots to be anything impactful.
Lastly, another big trade, as the Predators made another move shipping Tanner Jeannot to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a litany of picks and prospect Cal Foote. The picks: a 2025 1st round pick (top-10 protected), a 2024 2nd round pick, and a 3rd, 4th and 5th round pick in 2023. This is a huge haul for the Predators here, and while it may jump out as a massive overpay, Lightning GM Julien BriseBoise had a great quote today explaining the move from his perspective.
The Toronto Maple Leafs made a big move on Monday picking up Jake McCabe at 50 percent retained, as well as Sam Lafferty, from the Chicago Blackhawks. In exchange, the Leafs gave up a 2025 1st round pick, a 2026 2nd round pick, as well as prospects Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev.

Oilers stagnant in power rankings

The latest power rankings from Daily Faceoff dropped on Monday, with Scott Maxwell having the Oilers 9th overall once again. Here’s what he wrote:
Record: 32-20-8 (.600%, t-11th)
5v5 Goal Differential: +8 (t-14th)
5v5 xGF/60: 2.93 (6th)
5v5 xGA/60: 2.53 (12th)
PP xGF/60: 10.1 (2nd)
PK xGA/60: 8.14 (18th)
5v5 PDO: 100
Previous Week: 9th (0)
The Oilers snapped their four-game losing streak with back-to-back wins in Pennsylvania over Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, before losing to the Blue Jackets on Saturday. While Connor McDavid does incredible things all the time, this week was notable for him as he became the fifth fastest player to hit 800 points.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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