Of course, the Oilers made their moves earlier this week, acquiring Connor Murphy, Jason Dickinson, and Colton Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2028 second, a 2027 first, and Andrew Mangiapane in two separate trades.

Overall, those weren’t bad trades for the Oilers, as they have improved their defence by getting a strong defensive defenceman and a good third-line defensive centre. But once again, there is a feeling that they may not have done enough, as they failed to land a middle-six scoring record, even though Bobby McMann was available for a second and a fourth.

It’s been a long time since the Oilers have gone all-in. The closest they’ve been in the Connor McDavid era was when they sent a 2023 first, 2024 fourth, Tyson Barrie, and Reid Schaefer to the Nashville Predators before the 2023 trade deadline. Their follow-up move before the 2023 deadline saw them acquire Nick Bjugstad, giving up a 2023 third and Michael Kesselring.

Last year, they acquired Jake Walman, Trent Frederic, and Max Jones. In 2024, they acquired Troy Stecher, Adam Henrique, and Sam Carrick. Then in 2022, they acquired Brett Kulak and Derick Brassard. The examples go on and on, too: 2021 saw them acquire Dmitry Kulikov, 2020 saw them acquire Mike Green and Andreas Athanasiou.

Even in their first postseason appearance since the start of the Decade of Darkness back in 2017, they only acquired David Desharnais. Granted, Desharnais scored a big goal, but you have to look all the way back to the 2005-06 season as to the last time the Oilers went “all-in” at a trade deadline. Which is exactly what we’ll do in this edition of Flashback Friday.

The 2006 trade deadline

In the 2005 off-season, the Oilers made a handful of winning moves. The most notable of which saw them acquire Chris Pronger from the St. Louis Blues for Eric Brewer, Doug Lynch, and Jeff Woywitka. A day later, they acquired Michael Peca from the New York Islanders for Mike York and a 2006 pick.

Just before the start of pre-season, the Oilers also acquired Yan Stastny from the Boston Bruins, a trade that’d play a bigger role later in the season. In the early months of the 2005-06 season, the Oilers sent Alexei Semenov to the Florida Panthers for a pick, then acquired Blake Evans from the Blues for future considerations.

On Jan. 26, 2006, the Oilers sat eighth in the Western Conference, sitting six points ahead of the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks for the final spot. Even with Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins sat last in the Eastern Conference, so a trade between the two teams made sense. That day saw the Oilers send Cory Cross and Jani Rita to the Penguins for Dick Tärnström.

But that wasn’t the biggest trade of the day for the Oilers, because they sent the rights to Tony Salmelainen for Jaroslav Špaček, an important defenceman for the Oilers in what was to come. Špaček eventually won the bronze medal with Team Czechia at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

The Oilers returned to action on March 1, falling 4-2 to the St. Louis Blues. They won their next two games, a 3-2 regulation victory over the San Jose Sharks, and 3-2 overtime victory over the Nashville Predators, but lost 4-3 in a shootout on March 7.

To this point, the Oilers had used three netminders over the course of the season. Both Jussi Markkanen and Ty Conklin had an .880 save percentage, while Mike Morrison had an .884 save percentage. On March 7, the Oilers made a decision to fix that obvious problem, sending their 2006 first and a 2007 third-round pick to the Minnesota Wild for Dwayne Roloson on March 8, 2006.

The 2005-06 trade deadline was on March 9, with the Oilers making one move, sending Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny, and a 2006 second-round pick to the Boston Bruins for Sergei Samsonov.

As you likely know, these four moves had a massive impact on the Oilers, as they were able to sneak into the playoffs in the eighth seed. In six games, they knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings, went down 0-2 to the San Jose Sharks, but won four straight games, before defeating the Anaheim Ducks in five games to make their first Stanley Cup Final since 1990.

It’s not a hot take to say that they could’ve won it all as well. Entering the finals, Roloson was rocking a .931 save percentage over 17 games, as the Oilers were 12-4-1 in that stretch. However, he was injured late in Game 1, with the Oilers turning to their two netminders who had an .880 save percentage before the Roloson trade. Despite being down 3-1 in the series, the Oilers were able to force Game 7 with two backup-calibre netminders at best.

As for the skaters they acquired before the 2006 deadline, Špaček only scored three goals and 14 points in 24 games, but he played 20 or more minutes in all but Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, often reaching the 23-to-25 minute mark. In one of their most important wins of the run, Game 3 against the San Jose Sharks, Špaček played 46 and a half minutes before Shawn Horcoff ended the game in triple overtime.

Samsonov had a respectable postseason run for a middle-six forward, scoring four goals and 15 points in 24 games. On top of that, he had one of the most memorable assists, passing the puck to Aleš Hemský for the game-winning goal in Game 6.

Sports Closet

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OTD in 2006. 🗓️ With his club down 3-2 to the 1st seed Detroit Red Wings and time running out, Ales Hemsky scores once to tie it, then grabs the game-winner with just over a minute to go, giving the Oilers a 4-3 comeback win and a spot in the 2nd round. 🏆 #LetsGoOilers