Anthony Mantha, Ivan Provorov, and Luke Kunin are the latest names being spoken aloud in connection to the Edmonton Oilers as we appraoch the NHL trade deadline, but I’ve gone one more and Bob Stauffer has whispered his name on his radio show briefly in the past.
This guy would be the kind of player fans love AND he’s a right shot, but that’s not the cherry on top. The big thing with him is that he’s an ace on the dot.
So not only could the Oilers have their faceoff specialist, but all the good Oilers teams have had a dedicated tough guy. This player is that as well and he’s fought the leagues toughest since joining the NHL.
Read on to find out who that is.
I should start prefacing these blogs with the fact that I write them a day in advance and because we’re getting so close to the deadline there’s a good chance I might write about a player or a team and it be old news by the time it gets to your beautiful eyes. If that happens, my apologies!
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The Latest Edmonton Oilers Trade Rumors
Take Off Your Pants and Blue Jacket
“Currently last in the Eastern Conference, the Blue Jackets are open to exploring trade scenarios involving some of their players who are signed beyond this season, as the likes of Provorov, forward Sean Kuraly, defenceman Andrew Peeke, blueliner Jake Bean, and goalie Elvis Merzlikins have seen their names swirl around the trade winds.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Edmonton Oilers are among the teams believed to have interest in Provorov, who does not own any no-trade protection.” – The Fourth Period
- He’s not as dynamic at the NHL level as he was in junior. Not really a shock there. And he’s had some lean years playing for some below average teams in Philly and Columbus, but this year he’s on pace to get close to his career high in points (41) and the Blue Jackets are a joke. What could he do in Edmonton.
- He’s got two more seasons left @ $4.75M/yr, so one would think that the BJs would need to eat at least half of that in any trade with Edmonton.
- Another issue is that the Oilers have Nurse and Ekholm in their top-4, would trade for another dman to play there? Provorov is getting 20+ minutes a night in Columbus. Unless the plan would be to play him on the right side but I’ve not been able to find anything saying he’s got experience playing there.
- Would they trade Ceci and promote Kulak to the 2nd pair to play with Ekholm? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right. Kulak is good in spurts up there, not full-time and it’d be insane to put Broberg up there.
- I mean, I guess if you want to have depth in the post-season, why not go for the best, but The blueline would be completely unbalanced.
Capital Gains
“The Oilers have their feelers out on a lot of pending deals and Marek explained, “Anthony Mantha’s having a real good season — he’s scoring goals this season.” With 18 goals and 29 points through 52 games for the Washington Capitals this year, Marek is correct. He then hinted that perhaps no one knows Mantha as well as Ken Holland.” – NHL Trade Talk
- When Anthony Mantha is on his game, he’s a god damned freight train. A man with that kind of size, skill, feistiness, and shot… I could only imagine the kind of chaos a line of Kane/Draisaitl/Mantha and what they’d do.
- On the other hand, when he’s not going, he’s not very useful and the man who’d know him best is Ken Holland, right? Holland got rid of him in Detroit and only he knows the true reasons.
- Mantha’s in a contract year though, so that might explain why he’s having a better season. He’d only hurt himself by playing bad during a Stanley Cup run, am I wrong?
Luke, Use the Force Somewhere Else…
“The new more interesting name that Friedman noted the Oilers could be after is Luke Kunin from the San Jose Sharks. The 26-year-old right-shot forward currently has eight goals and two assists this season but fits the depth grit forward mould that the team could be looking for. He’s less flashy than Adam Henrique, but looks to be a lower-cost add the team could look into.” – The Oil Rig
- F*ck yeah he’s less flashy. He’s a 4th line center with 10 points on the year while Henrique has nearly 40pts.
- Henrique can also take a draw. Kunin eats absolute shite on the faceoff. In every situation, his FO% falls under 48% and you can’t be trading for a guy just because he shoots right.
- My advice would be to leave Kunin for someone else and bring in Mark Kastelic from Ottawa. He hits at nearly double the rate that Kunin does, he’s also right handed, he’s 6’4″, and has only taken about 60 less draws than the Sharks center, but he’s infinitely better.
- Amongst all the right-shot centers in the league who’ve played at least 35 games and taken 200 faceoffs or more, Kastelic ranks 5th (55.7%)!!! For defensive zone faceoffs, he ranks 14th (53.6%) in the entire NHL and he’s only playing not even eight minutes a night for Ottawa.
- He only gets that much TOI because the offense dies when he’s on the ice. However, his fancies tell me that the opposition doesn’t get much either as all his 5v5 relative ‘against’ metrics are in the negative on Natural Stat Trick.
- I imagine his 5v5 relative ‘for’ metrics are so shite because he’s a banger and a fighter. In theory, a good coaching staff could help him with that, but even with that in mind, the Oilers need some energy players in their bottom-6. I feel like Kastelic could be the kind of player who could change the momentum of a game with a good hit or a key faceoff win.
- So getting back to Kunin. He hits, but Kastelic hits more, is cheaper, and is a better player on the draw where the Oilers need their new right-shot center to be.
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