Report: Oilers expressed interest in Patrick Marleau, Holland held firm on Andreas Athanasiou cost

The @Edmonton Oilers were one of the teams sniffing around acquiring forward @Patrick Marleau from the @San Jose Sharks leading up to the NHL’s trade deadline.

The brief report came from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his 31 thoughts column, where he also noted that Oilers GM Ken Holland stood his ground in trade talks for @Andreas Athanasiou.

A few interesting notes from Friedman needless to say.

First off, Edmonton showing interest in Marleau is something worth talking about. There’s obvious value in having a veteran presence like him in the room, and he’s still managed — despite being 40 years old — to not be a major knock at even-strength (49.27 CF%, 49.20 xGF%). His offensive production has dropped pretty significantly, but his 1.4 ES P/60 would put him just below @Josh Archibald and @Joakim Nygard. His offensive isolated impact chart shows Marleau at +8 offence and +4 defence.

He took a league-minimum deal with San Jose signing for $700,000, and it’s clear he wanted to be there at the season’s start. In terms of his trade value Monday, Edmonton got a player in @Tyler Ennis for much less than that of Marleau, who went for a 2020 3rd round pick.

Staunch moves and negotiations from Holland.

Speaking of which, the note on Athanasiou is great to see, too. You can’t blame a guy like Yzerman for trying to maximize his assets but good on Holland for standing his ground. AA had a great first game with the Oilers last night, as did Ennis, who both tallied a goal and an assist in a 4-3 OT loss.

Edmonton is going to be relying on those two down the stretch and both should have some jump — especially tonight off a back-to-back — considering they missed a few games last week as the Red Wings and Senators protected their assets.

On Twitter: @zjlaing