Edmonton Oilers Offseason Talk: Pesce, Niederreiter, Olofsson, and More NHL Rumors!

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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The Fourth Period

Oilers Trying to Shake Up Roster?

“Philadelphia Flyers winger Travis Konecny, Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Brett Pesce, and Buffalo Sabres forward Victor Olofsson are among the players Edmonton is reportedly looking at on the trade market.”
“During Thursday’s “Insider Trading” segment on TSN, Darren Dreger reported the Oilers are trying to add at both ends of the rink and could be aggressive in the process.”
“We know that the Edmonton Oilers are one of those teams in the market also looking to add another top-four defenceman,” Dreger said, naming Pesce as a target. “In Edmonton, it’s about loosening up the money strings and creating cap space, so this isn’t going to be easy for Kenny Holland. He would like to also add a competitive forward, a bargain forward like Connor Brown.”
“The Oilers could also explore the free agent market, with the likes of Vegas Golden Knights forward Ivan Barbashev, Boston Bruins defenceman Dmitry Orlov, and Tampa Bay Lightning veteran Alex Killorn potentially becoming available July 1.”

BLH’s Thoughts: How weird is that? Just yesterday I was talking about Brett Pecse and I actually deleted a bit on Olofsson…

I know that the Oilers have to go for it in the coming seasons as Draisaitl and McDavid’s contracts are set to expire, but I don’t know how they’re going to do it before the 24/25 season without swapping out anybody that’s already making $5M+. On top of that, what future assets are they using to sweeten up those offers? Out of the eight potential picks in the first four rounds of this year’s draft and next, they’ve got three selections, one 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks. To make it worse, which prospects are they planning to use as trade fodder? Bourgault, Holloway, Lavoie, and Broberg are probably the only youngsters that hold any value outside of their organization and they are probably going to need their cheap contracts.

So, with all of that in mind, the free agents that The Fourth Period mention, in my opinion, are off limits unless the Oilers move out RNH, Evander Kane, Darnell Nurse, Cody Ceci, Kailer Yamamoto, or Warren Foegele.

I even wonder if Ryan McLeod is being soft shopped. The club is going to be forced to pay up and I don’t think they’re in a great position to do it. This could end up being Jason Chimera 2.0 if they do move him.

Lastly here, I’ve said it before but I think it’s worth bringing up again, pay attention to the names connected to the Oilers this summer as they may become serious targets NEXT offseason should they be available or even at the deadline if Holland accrues enough cap space over the course of the season and/or gets some help from the LTIR gods.

Pesce, Olofsson, Konecny, Guentzel, DeBrusk, Arvidsson, Kubalik, Hartman… These are the kind of players that’ll be UFAs next summer. Keep their names handy as they may come up in the rumor mill connected to the Oilers this season.

The Athletic

Ken Holland’s Oilers roster construction missing one final piece

“The Oilers’ final area of concern is finding a winger who can play with Leon Draisaitl when the big man is patrolling centre without Connor McDavid.”
“The outside list is not encouraging. Most of the names carry large cap totals (Jordan Eberle, Nick Schmaltz, Josh Bailey) or are emerging talents under contract control (Morgan Geekie, Trent Frederic) of other NHL clubs.”
- “Nino Niederreiter and Tyler Toffoli stand alone as affordable ($4 million and $4.25 million AAV, respectively) and possibly available in a trade.”
“In terms of style fit, Niedderreiter is closer to the big winger who can play with skill the organization is aiming for this summer.”
- “The gap in cap between Yamamoto and Niederreiter is $900,000 and the Oilers would no doubt need to add a sweetener.”
- “Niederreiter is an aggressive player with a real touch around the net. He can win battles, doesn’t have a long contract and may be available.”
- “If management pushes for the most proven right winger who checks the grit, battle, hum and rattle boxes, Niederreiter will be in Edmonton this fall.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I have brought him up in the past but I hate trying to spell his bloody name so I usually avoid mentioning him unless I feel really compelled to do it.

All the things that LT brings up, they make sense. He’s hard-nosed and he goes to the dirty areas and scores gritty goals. He’s good for at least 20 ginos but maybe we could bump that up to 30 if he’s on Leon or Connor’s wing. He was a plus player for all but one season in Carolina and his fancies for the past four seasons are exactly where you want them to be if you’re a club looking to decrease the amount of 5v5 GA and increase the number of 5v5 GF. Check out his advanced numbers in relative format right here. It’s almost uncanny that for nearly his whole career, for the most part, the “for” stats are in the positive and the “against” ones are in the negative save for this past season with the floundering Winnipeg Jets.

I think this is a player the Oilers could potentially trade for and then sign for a good four-to-five years at a marginal increase in salary from $4M-ish and still get value out of him come the end of his deal.

I don’t know about you, but I’d swap Yamamoto and futures for Niederreiter yesterday.

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

(Alex) DeBrincat lacks a no-trade clause but he and his agent provided the Senators with a list of preferred trade destinations. Garrioch reports the list includes his hometown Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars.
Arpon Basu confirmed a Radio-Canada report claiming the Montreal Canadiens are attempting to move up in the 2023 first-round draft order. Currently holding the fifth-overall pick, they’ve attempted to swap picks with the fourth-overall San Jose Sharks and have contacted the Anaheim Ducks about the second-overall selection.
Michael Gallagher reports Predators general manager Barry Trotz intends to go shopping for offensive-minded players in this summer’s trade market.
- It’s been well-documented the Canucks are actively trying to shed salary. They’re believed to be shopping Conor Garland but Trotz might have his eye on scoring winger Brock Boeser.

BLH’s Thoughts: Would Jamie Benn or Tyler Seguin green-light a deal to Ottawa with Debrincat going the other way? I feel like that’s about the only way a trade with Dallas gets made and with how Benn absolutely imploded in the playoffs, Jim Nill might be getting some pressure to find him a new home. It doesn’t help that the Stars’ owner isn’t the biggest fan of his star player either.

Vegas, Florida, and Detroit could make hockey trades to get Connor’s former linemate in Erie though. That said, why would Pierre Dorion, who’s probably on the outs, do Debrincat a favor seeing as the sniper has no trade protection?

Would the Habs flip Slafkovsky to get Fantilli or Carlsson? I’m not the biggest fan of Will Smith getting picked that high because his skating seems off to me, but it can’t be that bad seeing how much he produced this season and that MTL’s GM coached him when he was younger. I just think Fantilli or Carlsson will be better NHLers. Watch me get caught in another Draisaitl/Bennett trap here though. If you didn’t know, I was angling for the Oilers to take Bennett in that draft because he reminded me of Doug Gilmour. Ugh…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFQ4ls9OEc