Welcome to Oilersnation’s top 15 stories of the year, where we count down the most-read stories you, the reader, clicked on in 2024.
Number seven in the countdown came nearly a year ago to the day, when conversations were still happening around Jack Campbell and his future in Edmonton, while a look ahead to the trade deadline.
Campbell has been long in the American Hockey League with the Bakersfield Condors at the time, putting together some strong games, and word on the street was that if the Oilers wanted to move his contract in a trade, if would be costly. The team, meanwhile, were being listed as “aggressive buyers” by The Athletic.
The Oilers were listed as an “aggressive buyer” in The Athletic’s buyer and seller tiers last week, though Daniel Nugent-Bowman also noted that general manager Ken Holland will need to get creative in order to make changes because of the team’s tight salary cap situation. He said that it’ll “almost certainly” require moving one of Jack Campbell, Warren Foegele, Cody Ceci, or Brett Kulak in order to make an upgrade somewhere on the roster.What upgrades might the Oilers look to make? Earlier in the season, adding a goaltender seemed like a must, but Stuart Skinner has played well lately and Calvin Pickard, who came up from the AHL when Jack Campbell was waived, has been a perfectly fine backup. With Ryan McLeod thriving on Leon Draisaitl’s wing, finding a third-line centre might be the team’s top priority, though adding depth to a relatively thin blueline is surely a goal as well.…The challenge with trading Campbell and, ultimately, making an upgrade between the pipes, though, is that it’ll cost the Oilers something to move the 31-year-old’s albatross contract, and it’ll also cost them something to acquire whichever goalie they think is going to help them improve.The most expensive of those two transactions is likely going to be moving Campbell. According to Pierre LeBrun, who spoke to Holland last week, “It probably cost two first-round picks to get a team to eat a deal that has three more years at a $5 million cap hit. That situation is going to have to wait until the summer, whether that’s a buyout or not. I just don’t see the Oilers dealing with that this season.”
The Oilers would keep their powder dry on a Campbell trade, instead opting to buy out the remainder of his contract in the summer time. When it came to be aggressive buyers, the Oilers ended up swing a fairly big deal, acquiring Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick,
Top 15 articles of 2024
- No. 15: Corey Perry, Evander Kane exchange words on the bench
- No. 14: Oilersnation pranks fans by saying Ken Holland signed extension
- No. 13: Adding Corey Perry “changes the outlook” of Oilers’ trade deadline, could “open the door” for Jack Campbell move
- No. 12: ‘I wouldn’t have gone out there for a million dollars’: Connor McDavid talks about declining to accept Conn Smythe
- No. 11: Rumours swirled at draft Oilers asked Evander Kane to waive no-movement clause
- No. 10: Connor McDavid ranked 3rd, Leon Draisaitl 13th on ESPN’s list of Top 25 NHL players of the 21st century
- No. 9: ‘I’m going to do what’s best for me’: Oilers star Leon Draisaitl opens up on then-expiring contract
- No. 8: Oilers fans react with dismay over Stan Bowman’s hiring
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, and senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
