Could the Oilers and Penguins Be in a Position to Help Each Other Out?

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

From NYI Hockey Now

Is Islanders Jordan Eberle Expendable with Oliver Wahlstrom Waiting in the Wings?

Despite not having played a full 82-game schedule, it seems that Wahlstrom is ready to be an everyday player. The question becomes does he stay on the third line, or does he see his role elevated?
In a recent article, we looked at two Islanders players that may be left unprotected to shed much-needed cap space. Jordan Eberle was one of those players, and despite a solid regular season and postseason, is he potentially holding Wahlstrom back from more minutes?
While the grind of the hectic season seemed to get to Wahlstrom towards the end of the year, he was able to be a contributing offensive piece to a lineup that was offensively challenged during the regular season.
Now Eberle could very well remain with the Islanders. He could be protected in the expansion draft as keeping him only makes the Islanders a deeper team. However, seeing Eberle go not only allows for his $5.5 million cap hit to be used to sign a goal-scorer like Kyle Palmieri but also allows for Wahlstrom to play more minutes, which in turn should mean more offensive production.

BLH’s Thoughts: Wahlstrom only had 4 fewer goals than Eberle this season whilst playing far fewer minutes plus he’s 10 years younger than the former Edmonton Oiler.

At some point, the Islanders are going to have to give the players developing in their system a shot. Kieffer Bellows and Simon Holmstrom will be others looking to get their chance in the coming seasons and with the club getting older and slower by the season, there might not be a better time to bring them along slowly at the NHL level.

From NHLRumors.com

Penguins offseason priorities

Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pittsburgh Penguins would like to add some size this offseason. They also don’t need to fill all their holes immediately as some moves can wait until the trade deadline next season.

Top priorities for the Penguins

Right-side defenseman – A hole the need to fill, either re-signing Cody Ceci or finding a free agent.

Physicality – The Penguins may need to move out some salary before they are able to add. Free agency may not be a fit so they may need to hit the trade market. This is the area that may wait for the trade deadline.

Experienced goaltending – They have Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith under contract for next year. The goalie market could be crowded again this offseason.

BLH’s Thoughts: Edmonton has Ethan Bear, Zack Kassian, and Mikko Koskinen they could send Pittsburgh’s way to fill those needs. Would some combination of those three be enough to pry Jason Zucker out of Pittsburgh?

Oilers could build an impressive blue line, and the Sabres trade candidates

TSN: Darren Dreger when asked if we will see a Duncan Keith trade soon to Edmonton or Seattle, and other blue line notes for the Oilers.

Re: Duncan Keith to the Oilers, “I think that is the best way to describe it, likely, but nothing is imminent at this point.”
“It sounds like they are getting close on Adam Larsson and sealing up an extension there.”
“I’m told that Ken Holland will also meet with CAA Hockey who represent Tyson Barrie about a potential extension, keeping him with the Oilers.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ll say it one more time, expect the unexpected.

How much better would the Oilers be with a group on defense that looked like this:

Nurse/Barrie
Keith/Larsson
Bear/Bouchard
Russell

Even then, I still think they’d look at adding some bigger grittier defenseman at the expense of Ethan Bear.

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