The Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks are in talks to consummate a trade that would send Jason Dickinson to Alberta’s capital, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Wednesday night.

Dickinson, 30, is no stranger to Western Canada, having spent the 2021-22 season with the Vancouver Canucks. The four years since have all been with the Blackhawks, appearing in 266 games, scoring 44 goals and 94 points, including six goals and 13 points in 47 games this year.

Offence isn’t his calling card, however, as Dickinson has long been one of the better shutdown centres in the NHL, posting strong defensive metrics on some poor Blackhawks teams. This year alone, his overall contributions equate to those of a high-end first-line centre, according to Hockey Viz, driven largely by his elite defensive play, where he drives play in his own zone at a staggering 20 percent rate above league average. A breakeven faceoff man, Dickinson has been a top penalty killer for the Blackhawks on the league’s best unit.

Dickinson, a pending unrestricted free agent, carries a $4.25 million cap hit, so any deal between the two sides would need salary retention, or Andrew Mangiapane heading back in order to make the money work. The Oilers have $200,000 in cap space, according to PuckPedia.

Earlier this week, he told the Chicago Sun-Times he was expecting to be moved, saying he felt his game was “well-built for playoffs.”

It would be the second deal between the Oilers and Blackhawks in as many days, with Edmonton picking up defenceman Connor Murphy in exchange for a 2028 second-round pick, while Chicago retained 50 per cent of his salary.

Dickinson sang the praises of Murphy in the aforementioned article.

“The presence of him was hard to quantify because he was just so steady and so reliable in so many ways — not just on the ice but as a leader in the room,” he said. “You could always look to Murph.”

Dickinson was drafted by the Dallas Stars 29th overall in the 2013 draft, spending six years there before the Canucks acquired him for a 2021 third-round pick. The deal that sent him to Chicago saw him moved alongside a second-round pick in 2024 for Riley Stillman. He’s appeared in 549 games in the NHL, scoring 74 goals and 168 points, and was part of the Stars team that lost the 2020 Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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