Weekly Rumours: The calm before the storm
4 years ago
We are officially just 32 days away from the NHL trade deadline! The Oilers are on their bye week but still sit just one point back of the top spot in the Pacific Division. I’ve been hesitant to say it so far this season, but I think it’s time to officially consider the Oilers ‘buyers’. Ken Holland should absolutely be shopping for forward help at the upcoming trade deadline.
TRADE BAIT
Who could be a realistic target for Holland and the Oilers? For that, we’ll turn to Frank Seravalli’s Trade Bait Board!
Seravalli listed 20 assets on his initial list. If you take out the one draft pick, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders, that leaves you with a total of ten assets to look at from an Oilers perspective.
I’m still not convinced that Holland will go after a big-name rental player. I think the price will be too high and the Oilers will prefer someone who costs fewer assets or is under team control for next season. That eliminates @Chris Kreider, @Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and @Tyler Toffoli.
Players like @Alex Galchenyuk and @Craig Smith are intriguing, but they both carry cap-hits over $4 million and that would make it tough for the Oilers to squeeze them in, even if they waited right up until February 24th. Same for @Kyle Turris, who makes $6 million for the next four seasons. @Ilya Kovalchuk has been a great story in Montreal, but I think the Oilers would prefer a player who could keep up in their top-six, so ‘Kovy’ likely isn’t a fit either.
Through the process of elimination, I’ve narrowed down Franks list to three names that I consider to be realistic targets for the Oilers. They are @Andreas Athanasiou, @Ryan Donato, and @Josh Anderson.
If you’ve been reading the site over the last few weeks then you would have heard plenty of different takes on both Athanasiou and Anderson. I think everyone recognizes that those two would be really good fits on the Oilers, it will just come down to how much their respective teams want back and Holland is willing to pay that price.
Donato is a very interesting name simply because I hadn’t heard it too much up until this point. He was the main return that the Wild got in last seasons @Charlie Coyle trade but he’s been inconsistent during his time in Minnesota. In 67 games with the Wild, he has produced 13 goals and 18 assists.
Personally, I can’t figure out why Minnesota would want to trade him. He’s only 23, has barely played 100 games in the league, can play both centre and the wing, and has a PPG of 0.44 with the Wild. On top of that, he’s under contract for next season at just $1.9 million. If he truly is available, the Oilers should be looking into it.
BIG BOY HOCKEY
The other big piece of Oilers news that came out in the last week was that the team and @Zack Kassian are getting close to an extension. Mark Spector reported on Saturday that a four-year deal would likely come with a cap hit somewhere between $3-3.5 million.
Some fans didn’t like that, but honestly, it’s kind of what you should expect a UFA forward coming off a 20-goal season to get. Right now, there are 17 wingers in the NHL who signed for between $3-3.5 million and will be UFA’s at the end of the deal.
How many of those players are better than Kassian? Very few. I know he plays with McDavid and I’m not going to argue about whether or not it’s smart for the Oilers to give four years to Kassian or not but if the deal is for between $3-3.5 million, you can’t say that the Oilers overpaid based on the comparables.
Elliotte Friedman added in his most recent ‘31 Thoughts’ that the Oilers are thinking about extensions for Riley Sheahan, Josh Archibald, and Joakim Nygard as well. All three of those players have been solid this season so it makes sense why the organization wants to keep them around, but I don’t see the rush. Why not just wait until after the season handle this?
QUICK NOTES
- Friedman added that the Penguins want Wild forward @Jason Zucker. They’ve also been connected to@ Chris Kreider recently. Pittsburgh will need to clear up some cap space but GM Jim Rutherford is going to go for it this season.
- Could Coach Q convince Keith to come to Florida? That’s another question Friedman floated out this week. He didn’t go in-depth on it, but it’s an interesting idea. Keith has three more years at $5.5 million, so a deal would be tough to make, but the Panthers need help preventing goals and it’d make sense for Quenneville to want someone he’s familiar with.
- One final note from Friedman, he said the Leafs will only move @Kasperi Kapanen in a significant deal that makes them much better this season. That probably takes the Oilers out of the running for him, but we have been hearing that Edmonton would have interest in both @Alex Kerfoot and @Andreas Johnsson. I talked about it last week and really, there’s nothing new to report on that front. I expect things to really heat up once the All-Star break ends and teams conclude their pre-deadline meetings.
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