Legendary Edmonton Oilers blogger and sports radio man Lowetide aka Allan Mitchell is of the belief that the Oilers are set to make a trade soon. He said this in a recent article of his penned at The Athletic,
“I suspect we get a trade either before the season or early on, as the club has five regulars for four positions. Archibald, a key penalty killer, is on the outside looking in. Unless Puljujarvi struggles badly, a good winger will be in the pressbox opening night.”
It’s funny, I don’t see Archibald as the player that’s on the outside looking in. I think that position belongs to Alex Chiasson. In fact, I think that it’s entirely possible that two right-wingers could potentially get traded because Ken Holland has a plethora of left-wingers who can play on the right side, namely Dominik Kahun and James Neal. Then he has Joakim Nygard and possibly Tyler Benson on hand to step up on the left side and if that’s a no-go, Patrick Russell can fill in on the 3rd or 4th line RW.
Holland has put himself in a position where if his team isn’t playoff-bound he can pilfer off assets for draft picks at the trade deadline, but that’s not the only option he’s given himself. He’s also built an extremely deep club for what is going to amount to a very unpredictable and treacherous, albeit shortened, 2020-21 NHL season.
Think about it, if Dallas had had that kind of depth during their run last summer to the Cup final, would they have given the Lightning more of a challenge or possibly beat them? I think that is possibly what the Oilers management has had in mind with their signings this year.
However, do they have too many bodies or do you think they have just the right amount?
Getting back to Lowetide’s post, he ended it with this,
“The goaltending and five-on-five scoring are a concern, and one should expect the exceptional special team numbers from a year ago to slide.
Why should fans believe in the Oilers as a playoff team? The club is driven by its two best players and have improved the support around them over the offseason.
It would be a far easier task with a more consistent backup goalie. I believe Ken Holland will add a goalie at the trade deadline, if not before.”
I’ve said almost from the beginning, I think that Anton Forsberg is going to have a bit of an emergence this year. I can’t see Koskinen and Smith staying healthy for every game and since the Oilers have 12 back-to-backs this year, we’re going to get a glimpse of the Swedish netminder.
That being said, the never-ending chatter connecting the club to goalies like Marc-Andre Fleury, Darcy Kuemper, Jakob Markstrom, etc. can’t be ignored. It’s impossible not to come to the conclusion that Ken Holland is on the hunt for a proper no.1 goalie.
In addition to that, he’s also looking to pick up a true no.1/no.2 defenceman. Something that I agree he should be doing. The last time the team had one, they went to the Stanley Cup Final…
Darnell Nurse is a good dman, but I don’t believe he’s a proper top-pairing defender at this time, and what happens if Nurse gets hurt? Not that he’s prone to injury but they happen. Who’s going to step up to Edmonton’s top pair? Kris Russell? Caleb Jones? The newly signed Slater Koekkoek? #Yikes…
So the writing is on the wall and if could behoove the Oilers to make a move sooner than later…
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