This weekend had a little bit more drama than expected for Oilers fans. On the ice, the team absolutely beat down the Vancouver Canucks. But off the ice, some intrigue surrounded the waiver wire as the Nashville Predators tried to sneak 26-year-old defenseman Dante Fabbro through waivers.
I thought this would have been a slam-dunk claim for the Oilers. Fabbro is a solid puck mover, and that’s exactly what they need next to Darnell Nurse. However, the young defender didn’t even make it to the Oilers based on waiver wire priority, as the basement-dwelling Columbus Blue Jackets scooped him up.
Now we’re back to talking about trade options for Oilers general manager Stan Bowman.
Last week on Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli reported that the Buffalo Sabres are open for business on the trade market.
The Sabres came into this season with expectations of finally ending the longest playoff drought in the NHL, and the first month of the season has been a bit of a rollercoaster. While they’re coming off a blowout win over the powerhouse New York Rangers and have won back-to-back games by a combined score of 11-2, they’re still just 6-7-1 on the year.
The temperature is getting turned up on general manager Kevyn Adams, who’s in his fifth season with the club and has lasted longer than his predecessors. As Seravalli alluded to, he may be open to making a trade in order to shake things up before it’s another lost season in Buffalo.
We all know that the Edmonton Oilers have areas of their lineup that they’ll need to upgrade and will be active on the trade market at some point this season so whenever I hear that another team is looking to make a move, my ears instantly perk up.
Another thing that makes this situation interesting is that the Sabres recently healthy scratched a pair of defensemen who are solid players. Both Henri Jokiharju and Mattias Samuelsson have sat out the team’s last two games and have presumably fallen out of favour with Head Coach Lindy Ruff.
Would Henri Jokiharju or Mattias Samuelsson be fits for the Oilers?
Let’s start with Samuelsson. The 24-year-old missed half of last season with an injury and while his offensive numbers will never jump off the page to you, he has a reputation of being a pretty solid defender.
When a defense-first player plays on a generally bad team like Samuelsson has for the bulk of his career, it’s hard to get a good read on them by just looking at their numbers but Samuelsson has put together some really solid numbers early in his career and last season the Sabres outshot and out chances the opposition with him on the ice at 5v5 and the goals were dead even.
Impressive stuff and you can see why the Sabres locked him up to a seven-year deal, $30 million deal back in 2022. At a cap hit of $4.25 million, Samuelsson is on a great contract. If the Sabres decided to move him, they would likely get a really nice return. I’d be stunned if they went that route though.
As for Jokiharju, he’s a year older than Samuelsson but at just 25-years-old there’s still reason to believe his best hockey is ahead of him.
Jokiharju might be a better fit for the Oilers because he shoots right and that’s where the team has its biggest need. He would also be easier for the Oilers to fit in cap-wise with an AAV of just $3.1 million. He’s also a pending UFA so the asking price would likely be a lot lower.
I like the player, but as I’ve outlined before, the Oilers can really only afford to take one swing on the trade market this year so is Jokiharju the guy that they think can be the answer? I think Stan Bowman can aim higher.
The other thing that makes it hard to envision the Oilers and Sabres linking up on a deal is the fact that the Sabres want help right now.
Seravalli says they’re looking for help in their top six and the Oilers don’t really have anything that they can offer up in that regard. They’re struggling to score as is and don’t really have a lot of players that I’d view as spare parts in their top-nine.
While the Sabres do have some enticing players, I do think the Oilers should stay patient and hope some higher-end options become available.
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