December 15, 2020 /

Edmonton Oilers RUMOR: Is a Winger for Defenseman Swap Coming Down the Pipe?

This morning, on his daily Edmonton Oilers radio show, Oilers Now,  Bob Stauffer talked quite a bit about Edmonton’s current roster construction, where everyone potentially could slot in, and he also intimated that there seems to be some imbalance with regards to the forwards.

As he spoke with guests Mark Spector and Drew Remenda, he offered up the idea of Edmonton moving out a winger for a defenceman but more specifically, a forward who is in the last year of his deal who makes less than $2.5M for d-man with similar contract details.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that he’s talking about Alex Chiasson without talking about him because his name has been in the rumor mill since the 2019-20 season. Chaser makes $2.15M and his deal will expire after the 2020-21 campaign is complete.

It’s funny, back at the beginning of November we talked about this exact. same. thing. Stauffer dropped some speculation exactly to this tune and we did this exercise but at that time I reckoned Connor Carrick was the skater that would fit Edmonton’s needs because New Jersey only had two decent RWs.

Has anything changed in six weeks? Let’s see.

Here are six potential defencemen that Stauffer could be referring to:

  • Greg Pateryn (MIN) – RD – $2.25M (30yrs)
  • Connor Carrick (NJ) – RD – $1.5M (26yrs)
  • Stephen Johns (DAL) – RD – $2.35M (28yrs)
  • Carl Gunnarsson – LD – $1.85M (33yrs) *M-NTC*
  • Braydon Coburn (TB) – LD – $1.7M (35yrs) *NTC*
  • Jordie Benn – LD – $2M (32yrs)

Stauffer has mentioned on numerous occasions on his radio show that he thinks a winger for bottom-pair defenseman makes the most sense and out of that group of names most of them fit that description. Personally, I don’t think that Braydon Coburn is waiving his NTC to leave Tampa nor is Gunnarsson waiving his or has Edmonton on his accepted list of teams to be traded to. Vancouver’s D is already lacking beef, so they’re not moving him right now. Johns has had a tough go in Dallas but I can’t believe they’d give up on him yet, so that leaves Carrick, who we talked about last time, and the new guy on the list, Greg Pateryn.

The Minnesota Wild defenseman is attempting to come back from a 14-month layoff from two surgeries, one to repair a muscle core problem and a microdiscectomy to repair a herniated disc.

He’ll be in tough though as Carson Soucy has emerged as a full-time option for Minny in the last year and prospect Calen Addison, Brad Hunt, Matt Bartkowski, Louis Belpedio, and Ian McCoshen will be looking to take that last spot on the Wild’s blue line. Not helping Pateryn’s case is the fact he makes almost four times what those other players earn.

The 6’3″ 225lb Pateryn is a physical stay-at-home defender and if the Oilers were to acquire him, I can only think that he’d be a back-up option to Adam Larsson. Unless they’re expecting Ethan Bear to hold out… In that case, he’d be competition for Evan Bouchard for that no.6 spot, and with expanded rosters, having one more right-shot defenceman won’t hurt.

If you’re one to look at the fancies, I’d encourage you to eliminate his last season in 2019-20 as we know he was not 100% in that year. Plus, he only played 20 games. You can’t go off of that and make a sound judgment.

For the Wild though, they have a pretty deep stable of average forwards. According to CapFriendly’s depth charts, they have Kevin Fiala, Kirill Kaprizov, Nick Bjugstad, and Ryan Hartman patrolling their right-wing. But after that, not much and you know Bjugstad and Hartman won’t be playing every game.

So, if Bill Guerin wanted some RW depth and was looking for a “you help me, I’ll help you” sort of trade, Chiasson for Pateryn does help both teams in a sense.

Odd question I have, how often do teams trade their PA reps? Does it matter since they have an alternate on each team?

What do you think? Connor Carrick (NJ) or Greg Pateryn (MIN) or someone else? If I had to choose, I’d take Pateryn. My feeling is that he fits the needs of what Edmonton could need this year and he’s had a lot of time to recuperate from his medical procedures.

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CategoriesArmchair GM Beer League Hero Edmonton Oilers NHL Rumors

TagsEdmonton Oilers Edmonton Oilers Rumors Minnesota Wild Minnesota Wild Rumors NHL

Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!