Every morning I wake up with the expectation that the Oilers have made a trade and recently mornings have been disappointing on that front. Except for today, I woke up to see that they had extended offensive defender Joel Persson for one more year and for $1M.
The timing is pretty interesting as I’d recently had a conversation with a Swedish journalist that covers the SHL about Persson. I was asking when Persson would be eligible to come over because Bob Stauffer had hinted towards that in the past on his radio show. Basically what I was told is if Växjö only gets to the quarter-finals, he could be available to Edmonton in late March/early April. If his team goes to the finals, he will be in Sweden until May. Then there was the possibility of Persson playing for Sweden at the World Championships.
The bottom line on Persson coming to play in Edmonton this year, and what might’ve prompted the team to get him signed now, is that it’s highly unlikely we’ll see him this season. Maybe about as likely as the Oilers playoff chances right now.
TSN’s Little Switcheroo
Did anybody catch TSN’s little sleight-of-hand
yesterday?
All three assets traded today were featured on #TSN Trade Bait board: #Leafs' 1st round pick (No. 5), Jake Muzzin (No. 17), Jamie Oleksiak (No. 35). Ignore at your own peril. 🤣 https://t.co/NlzX23s77a
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 29, 2019
Funny how the Maple Leafs’ 1st round pick all of a sudden appeared at no.5 on their list after Edmonton’s pick was there up until that Muzzin trade…
I could be wrong (I often am) but I haven’t been able to find an updated list between the Jan.16th version and the Jan.28th one.
Basically, the differences between the two lists are:
- TSN removed the players that had been traded (L.Schenn, Del Zotto, Niederreiter) and added Brassard/Beaulieu/Weise.
- Conveniently took Edmonton’s 1st round pick OFF of the list and added Toronto’s in the exact same spot, No.5.
Every other player on the list is exactly where they’ve been since Jan.16th. That tells me that whoever makes the TSN Trade Bait Board is full of shit… As if there’s not been some shifting about of players availabilities in that near two-week window.
I mean, it’s completely possible that TSN took Edmonton’s pick off the board because Bob Nicholson said they weren’t trading it. So why not update the list back on the 23rd then?
But like I said, if there’s another trade bait board that was published between the 16th and the 28th, I’d love to see it and be 100% wrong on this.
TSN has updated the list again now. So nothing in nearly two weeks but RIDICULOUS movement in one day…
But if I’m right, and this doesn’t have anything to do with Edmonton’s pick being taken off, it’s more to do with Seravalli claiming an undeserved victory. I think that would put a dent into the unshakeable integrity that Seravalli claims to possess. How’s that untenable situation between the Oilers and Lucic going? I haven’t heard much from Frank on that since McLellan was let go…
But what should we care? It’s only a silly list, right?
The Three Ways Keith Gretzky Can Rid Himself of Those Bad Contracts
My belief is that this is the no.1 priority at the deadline. The Oilers have to clear the decks for the new GM and give him as much room as possible to work enough magic to get the team into the playoffs in year one. I don’t think that the mandate from ownership has changed one bit.
Playoffs are of the utmost importance and the belief that the team can still make it this year prevails despite the Oilers place in the standings. Why fire the coach and GM within 2 months of each other if the playoffs wasn’t the priority?
These players are the most likely to be traded, in my opinion, due to their contracts.
- Ryan Spooner – $3.1M is simply too much to be an AHL player. Then again the Oilers did bury Mark Fayne in the minors for the majority of his contract…
- Brandon Manning – $2.25M isn’t ridiculous for a bottom-pairing defender I feel but if Edmonton as a player like William Lagesson who can do the same job or better, then why not move manning out?
- Andrej Sekera – Sad but we’ve seen the last of ‘Rej I feel. $5.5M will be on LTIR for the next two years.
- Kris Russell – I love Russell but if the Oilers are sellers, I can pretty much guarantee you there’ll be buyers who are interested in Rusty’s services. That’s $4M off the cap.
- Milan Lucic – Despite what some “smart” folks say, there’s a market for Milan. Just not for his $6M per year deal. If another team could get him and only pay $3M per year, that’d open up the options for trades massively.
- Tobias Rieder – $2M for a guy who can’t score. Not gonna work in Edmonton.
- Matt Benning – $1.9M for the rest of this year and next. I could see a playoff-bound team looking to add some sandpaper to their backend for the run.
- Zack Kassian – $1.95M is a tad high for a 4th liner but Kassian has proven he can help on the PK and he can float up and down the lineup. He’s not taken AS many dumb penalties lately as well, so that’s a plus too.
- Alex Petrovic – $1.95M and he’s playing worse than Manning. I predicted that Manning would probably be the better of the two when they were brought to Edmonton and I’d have no issue with the Oilers moving on from Petro.
- Cam Talbot – $4.1667M for the Oilers back-up goalie is a bit rich for my blood and there are other teams that will remember the 2016 playoffs and have a need for some depth in net this year.
Ultimate best case scenario is the Oilers move all these players and open up $20M plus in cap room but that’s about as realistic as Arizona winning the Stanley Cup this year.
Out of that group of players, I think Talbot, Kassian, Benning, Rieder, and surprisingly enough Spooner will be the ones most likely to leave. Other players like Ty Rattie, Kevin Gravel, maybe Kyle Brodziak could be on the move as well.
Here’s how Gretzky could be able to move some of those unsavory contracts:
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They’ll eat salary in trades.
So I’ve heard that for Spooner to get traded, they might take on salary in order to move him. Is that more preferable than buying him our or burying him in the AHL?
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They’ll add sweeteners.
So maybe they add a mid-round draft pick to a player to move him or a higher pick depending on how desperate they are to get rid of that player.
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They’ll take the “L” on a deal
They’ll trade a “good” player and get little in return for him. Think of the Yakupov trade for example. Now he wasn’t really a good player at the time of the deal but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say. He was still young and the potential was there.
Conclusion
There’s talk that teams are calling on Tobias Rieder and if the Oilers can move him without taking back salary, that’ll go a long way in moving Spooner (salary retained).
Other things I’ve had passed on are:
- Sam Gagner for Spooner
- Benning for Connor Brown
- Oilers interested in Brassard, Pens in Kassian
- Jim Matheson is finally jumping on the “Return of Eberle” train. Stauffer started that one and we wrote about it here at the beginning of January.
I think these are just loose ideas of what some deals might be built around. The players might be wrong but the teams could be right. Elliotte Friedman has spoken about a larger deal with Chicago that I’m looking into right now. Perhaps we’ll get more on that this week.
Then there’s LA moving out Muzzin and his salary for this season and next without taking any back… That opens up the possibility of a return to LA for Lucic eh? A happy Milan is a productive Milan.
So as I said above, the goal for Edmonton here is to first clear cap space and THEN add players of significance. But we have to keep in mind that it’s more or less Hockey Canada running the deadline right now. How much say will Ken Hitchcock have in these upcoming deals? I guess we’ll find out when they happen…
