Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Is Ondrej Palat Plan B for Holland?

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The Athletic

Could Edmonton Oilers look to RFAs for a solution this summer?

Among the less expensive options, only New York Islanders winger Kiefer Bellows delivered more offence and that came in a sheltered role. Puck IQ has Bellows playing just shy of 75 percent of his five-on-five minutes against mid- or depth-level competition in 2021-22.
If Edmonton is unable to sign Kane, any of Jesper Bratt, Artturi Lehkonen and Victor Olofsson would be quality additions.
Trades for, and signing of, Kasperi Kapanen and Dominik Kubalik would be possible, but more expensive than just staying the course with Puljujarvi and Yamamoto.
Martin Necas is in an interesting position with the Carolina Hurricanes… The price would be dear, but Necas is skilled and creative. This represents the best option available among the RFAs who are arbitration eligible.
Lawson Crouse might be the best fit if the Oilers are unable to secure Kane’s services this summer. He’s a power forward, does play a significant amount against elites…
Artturi Lehkonen was exceptional in the playoffs and is in line for a big raise… The Oilers aren’t necessarily in the market for this player based on published intel, but there’s no doubt he could help either of the top two lines.
Dylan Strome is an interesting option, too… He is not a burner and has coverage issues defensively, but he could fill the net with either of Edmonton’s elite centres.
If one of the Edmonton RFAs is dealt, Carolina might be a good landing place for Puljujarvi.
Will the Oilers trade one of Puljujarvi or Yamamoto? Based on cap stress and the need to upgrade the right wing position, it seems inevitable.

BLH’s Thoughts: Of these options, Crouse, Necas, and Strome are my favorites and I know we just watched Lehkonen score clutch goal after clutch goal after clutch goal this year, but I feel like he would simply be the new Puljujarvi considering he’s not Canadian and he doesn’t score much. The Edmonton media would be all over his ass when the scoring dropped off.

But if Holland and his new analytics team are hell bent on trading Puljujarvi or Yamamoto, a trade for my three preferred options listed above would be ideal, however it would be a stark change in philosophy for this organization to make a big trade that benefits the club immediately. The smaller trades have been fair to midland in recent years, but the big ones have leaned one way more often than not.

All that said, Chicago might not qualify Strome thus rendering him a UFA and prying Necas out of Carolina might be more effort than it’s worth. Would it make more sense for the Oilers to use their young RFAs to go after a defenseman or a starting goalie?

For what it’s worth, Kubalik was connected to the Oilers a ton last year…

I love in this video below that Frank Seravalli can’t be bother paying a second of attention to Jason Gregor in this segment. It’s bad enough that he starts his stance out saying that Pulju has asked out, which Ken Holland has refuted publicly since, but he’s absolutely transfixed on his cell phone while Gregor’s out there making solid points regarding the Oilers winger. Check it out for yourself.

Lowetide

The roster moves we’re about to see would be far easier a year from now, when the Oscar Klefbom, Duncan Keith and Mike Smith (just shy of $12 million annually between the three) contracts come off the books. Time waits for no man, so the push this summer is going to be aggressive.
Holland is going to make some big moves and sacrifice futures in making these good things happen. A wild July is on the way.
I don’t believe Holland is willing to sweeten a Kassian deal enough to make it happen, a Foegele deal is likely to return a similar contract, and the fantastical Keith trade/buyout/re-sign has a chance to get stopped in its tracks by the NHL.
I think Holland is looking at:
- Buying out Kassian. It will save $2.5 million.
- Trading Tyson Barrie for picks and prospects, saving $4.5 million.
- Placing Mike Smith on LTIR.

BLH’s Thoughts: For me, Detroit, Buffalo, Arizona, and Ottawa seem like good fits for Zack Kassian if the goal for Ken Holland is to trade him without having to retain salary or add a sweetener. He might not get much in return, but those clubs have at least $23M in cap room.

We’ve also heard that Columbus is a potential landing spot for Kass too. Could there be potential for a Puljujarvi and Kass to Columbus for Eric Robinson and Gus Nyquist? I mean, it’s not my preferred trade but Nyquist has history with Holland from their Detroit days, he’s only got one year left on his deal at $5.5, and he scored 54pts last year.

Maybe Nyquist only spends a year with Edmonton but then next summer’s UFA crop is thick with the likes of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, Vlad Tarasenko, Max Pacioretty, David Pastrnak, Dylan Larkin, Bo Horvat, Tyler Bertuzzi, JT Miller, etc. becoming available. Tristan Jarry could hit the market if the Pens are dumb enough to let him get there and then on defense we have Matt Dumba, Damon Severson, MacKenzie Weegar, Vladislav Gavrikov, and Scott Mayfield potentially hitting the market.

So what I’m saying is that there might be a move or two that set up things for next summer and seeing as they’d be one year closer to McDavid and Draisaitl’s contracts expiring, it would make a modicum of sense for the team to add a major piece in the summer of 2023.

Trade Rumors

NHLTradeRumors.me

…the Oilers are linked to pending UFA Ondrej Palat.
Palat would be a very good addition to the Oilers’ roster. This is especially true if they end up losing Evander Kane through free agency.
…the Kraken are one of the many teams interested in Conor Garland… Garland would have a spot in the Kraken’s top six if acquired. It will be intriguing to see if he ends up heading to Seattle from here.
…the Kings are currently linked to Andrew Copp… If signed by the Kings, Copp would be a strong addition to not only their top six but also both their power play and penalty kill.
Evgeni Malkin is on the Carolina Hurricanes’ radar.
…the Bruins are one of the teams currently linked to pending UFA Mason Marchment.
…the Capitals are linked to Ducks goaltender John Gibson.
The Devils are likely going hard after one of Jack Campbell or Ville Husso in net to pair with Mackenzie Blackwood, who frankly hasn’t quite developed as fast as the team would hope.
The Devils #2 pick could be moved for an impact player such as Alex DeBrincat of the Chicago Blackhawks or J.T Miller of the Vancouver Canucks.
Valeri Nichushkin will have plenty of teams interested in him if he hits the market. According to The Fourth Period, the Devils are expected to be one of them.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve always loved Ondrej Palat and he’d be an outstanding add to the Oilers but would he be better than Evander Kane? Palat is one of the league’s best two-way wingers and he’s got a shit ton of championship pedigree too but Kane brings a certain amount of swagger and toughness to the team that hasn’t been seen since the days of Bill Guerin. So you’ve got to ask yourself where $6M+ is better spent for this team at this point in its development.