OilersNation Top 25 of 2020: #14 — The Edmonton Oilers didn’t get Kasperi Kapanen, but could another deal be made with the Toronto Maple Leafs?
By Zach Laing
3 years agoWelcome to the yearly wrap up of the top read articles over the last year!
There were few things that took NHL by more surprise than the Leafs dealing Kasperi Kapanen to the Pittsburgh Penguins during the playoffs.
Some teams remaining in the playoffs were reportedly upset by the fact they couldn’t bid for Kapanen as the Oilers chose to not offer up pick 14.
On August 25th, the day the trade happened, I penned an article looking at other trade options from the Leafs. It was the 14th most-read article this year.
The Oilers had reportedly been in on Kapanen for a long-time, but in the same breath, the aforementioned 14th overall pick was too much for Edmonton to give up.
Instead, I turned my eye to three other Leafs players I could’ve seen the Oilers targeting: Andreas Johnsson, Alexander Kerfoot and Frederik Andersen.
Here’s some of what I wrote:
Johnsson is another player who has been linked to the Oilers in the past. At 25, the Swedish forward has three years left on a deal paying him $3.4-million.I think a trade surrounding Johnsson+ could still be in the works. Toronto trading Kapanen clears up some cap space which may make a Larsson trade more palatable.Much like Johnsson, Kerfoot, 26, is another play who has been linked to the Oilers in the past. He’s on a deal with the same three years left and is paid $3.5-million a year.His underlying 5v5 numbers are solid too with a 52.53 CF%, a 48.86 GF%, and an xG% of 52.16. His isolated impacts are a bit better than that of Johnsson, and I like the fact Kerfoot is a centre, albeit a left-shot. He would be an upgrade over Riley Sheahan in the bottom-six and there could be a deal to be had surrounding Larsson.This one might be a bit out there, but I think there could be a deal to be had between the Oilers-Leafs surrounding Andersen.Andersen has been a career .917 save percentage goalie who had a down year this season posting a .909 save percentage in 52 games this year. He’s consistently put above-average GSAA numbers. The Athletic’s James Mirtle said Tuesday “I wonder if the Oilers might be a fit given they want to overhaul their goaltending situation, although they’d have to find a way to make Andersen’s cap hit work.”Moving Larsson for Andersen straight up would see the Oilers take on an additional $833,333 on the cap. That’s pretty manageable.
On Twitter: @zjlaing
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