Edmonton Oilers Rumors: “Don’t rule this out as an in-season move for the Oilers…”

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The Athletic

Can the Oilers keep Puljujarvi? Will they trade for Patrick Kane? Mailbag

I was told unequivocally that Yamamoto won’t be dealt. The superstars like playing with him too much for that to happen.
With McLeod and Yamamoto back for, say, $4 million to 4.5 million, that doesn’t leave much money to re-sign Puljujarvi.
The Oilers are open to moving Puljujarvi. However, it doesn’t sound like there’s much of a market for him around the league.
- The understanding here is ditching the 2016 No. 4 pick for pennies on the dollar simply to save cap space is a last resort for the Oilers. There’s a high likelihood they’ll keep him if the offers don’t improve.
Janmark brings many of the same skills as Foegele for 45 percent of the salary. Foegele has an extra year on his deal, too. All that could make him expendable. A league source doesn’t consider Foegele at $2.75 million AAV to be overpaid, so that helps his cause.
The Oilers would have to find another experienced defenceman if they dealt Barrie.
I think Puljujarvi is still the most likely to be moved, but I’m much less convinced that’ll happen than I was earlier this month. If he stays, one of Foegele or Barrie will surely have to go.
Janmark was described to me by a scout as the “anti-Jesse.” By that, the scout meant that his analytics aren’t great, but he touches more facets of the game than Puljujarvi — a fancy stats darling.
Expect both Puljujarvi and Yamamoto to top $3 million in annual salary on their next contracts.
The Oilers can’t walk away from a ruling by an arbitrator of less than $4.5 million. To keep both, at least one of Foegele or Barrie will likely have to go.
It’s worth noting that the Oilers are awfully thin at right wing without Puljujarvi and Yamamoto.
Yes, I believe the Oilers checked in on him and that there would be some interest if [Patrick] Kane were made available.
- My understanding is this appears unlikely in the short term.
- That would need to be cut in half for the Oilers to be able to fit him under the cap. I’m told the asking price to just do that is a first-round pick — and then teams need to pay other assets to acquire Kane for his talents. Working in a third team could drop the cap hit to $2.625 million for the Oilers, but that would require giving up another draft pick.
- Don’t rule this out as an in-season move for the Oilers, especially if they struggle to score or if the asking price lowers.
…from what I’ve been told, the Janmark signing — barring the trade of Foegele — does negatively affect Holloway’s chances of being on the ice on opening night.

BLH’s Thoughts: Aside from the Puljujarvi camp truly wanting out of Edmonton, why would Ken Holland keep Warren Foegele over Puljujarvi. It’d be WAY easier to trade McLovin’ for pennies on the dollar than Pulju plus Dylan Holloway is right there to take over Foegele’s spot.

Even if it means Jesse only signing for one year for what Foegele makes now (a shade under $3M), it’s a better plan than simply getting a 5th round pick for him or a bottom six grinder. They’d have the year to pump up his value in order to make a better trade down the line.

I’m just thinking if the Oilers really want a crack at Patrick Kane, having JP around to use as trade fodder is a pretty good idea, especially if he’s taken another step in his development.

What if Edmonton flipped the script on everyone and traded for Jonathan Toews though? How insane would that be?

Cult of Hockey

Might Edmonton Oilers winger Warren Foegele be skating on thin ice?

With ice time of 12 minutes a game at even strength and little responsibility on either special team, “depth player” is the best description of Foegele. He was a bottom-sixer for all but a few games in 2021-22, with his most common linemates being Derek Ryan, Zack Kassian and McLeod.
Foegele had decent underlying numbers. His shot shares north of 50% are a rare feat for an Oilers bottom sixer. Alas, those positive results didn’t quite extend to the all-important goals category, where the Oilers were outscored 37-43 (46%) on his watch with a traditional plus/minus of -9.
But his performance in the post-season was disappointing. In 13 games he recorded just 0-1-1, -5, and found himself in the press box for 3 games after being the only Oiler to play all 82 during the season.
To have to include a sweetener to move on from the player just a year after acquiring and then signing him would be a tough pill to swallow, but at some point Ken Holland will have to take his medicine to make his club cap-compliant.

BLH’s Thoughts: As I said above, it’s hard for me to understand why the Oilers would want to keep Foegele over Yamamoto or Puljujarvi in a scenario where trading one of them means taking back a mid-round draft pick.

As far as we know right now, there are teams trying to open up cap space in order to compete for Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg as well as others. So, we’re stuck waiting for some GM to blink and pay that extra freight to move their money around. I think once that starts happening things will open up and we’ll see action on Foegele and Edmonton’s RFAs.

Interesting to note, yesterday Bob Stauffer said that he could see Yamamoto re-signing with the Oilers on a 2/3yr deal before his arbitration hearing in August. Does that mean Killer is going to take a bit of a cut before he’s walked to UFA status? I wonder if his deal might come in at around a $2.5M AAV?

Either way, between now and next Friday the Puljujarvi situation will go from an unknown to a known. I can’t wait! If he’s dealt, his jersey might actually be available to buy.

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

Matty Tkachuk: The St. Louis Blues are often mentioned as the top destination for Tkachuk because he grew up in St. Louis and his family still lives there. Others include the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars.
- …the Flames aren’t looking to rebuild. They’ll seek a return that helps them remain a playoff contender in the coming season as well as for several seasons afterward. They’ll want at least one good young NHL player as part of a package deal that could also include a first-round pick and/or a top prospect.
- …the Devils are the best fit. Winger Jesper Bratt could be a good return though he recently filed for salary arbitration. If he’s willing to accept a long-term deal from the Flames, there could be a deal there. The Flames would probably have an interest in a prospect such as Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec or Alexander Holtz as part of the return.
Adrian Dater reports former Avalanche center Nazem Kadri has offers on the table from several clubs but they’re either teams he doesn’t want to play for due to location, they lack contender status or both.

NHLRumors.me

John Klingberg – These three teams are currently linked to signing the 29-year-old:
- Ottawa: Klingberg likely signs for something north of $6 million per season, a number the Sens can fit in at the moment. Ottawa has $11.6 million in cap space available and should be considered a contender for signing Klingberg.
- Buffalo: …the Buffalo Sabres are desperate for some more help on their right side. With Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin on the left side for the foreseeable future, adding a righty like Klingberg could do wonders.
- Detroit: The Red Wings are getting more serious these days and look for them to be in the mix with Klingberg down to the wire of putting pen to paper.
Canadiens Trade Candidates
- [Christian] Dvorak has been linked to trade rumors since Kent Hughes took over in Montreal and with the recent rumblings about Dubois, he could be the focal piece heading back the other way.
- [Josh] Anderson has been inconsistent for the Canadiens and is signed for five more seasons at $5.5 million.
- As a pending free agent who has a ton of experience in net, Jake Allen will be dealt by the Canadiens.
Teams Linked to Tkachuk
- The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are two teams who have reached out to Flames as recent as the NHL draft about the availability of Tkachuk and at that point, the talks went nowhere. The Devils believed to have offered the #2 overall pick for Tkachuk and were turned down.
- These two teams join the likes of the favorites, St Louis Blues, along with the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Nashville Predators, and Florida Panthers.
St. Louis Blues Trade Candidates
- One of the hottest names on the trade market, it seems like every big trade out of St Louis involves [Jordan] Kyrou going the other way.
- The Blues tried to acquire Ryan McDonagh from the Tampa Bay Lightning which would have led to [Torey] Krug being dealt.
- Depending on where the Blues sit mid-way through next season, the pending free-agent [Tarasenko] next summer could be dealt.

BLH’s Thoughts: Oilers play-by-play man, Jack Michaels, was on Oilers Now yesterday and he mentioned that they (Michaels and Stauffer) had heard last year that there was trouble in the Flames dressing room and that perhaps Tkachuk and Gaudreau didn’t see eye-to-eye but that the two leaving Calgary didn’t necessarily have anything to do with their poor relationship.