Oilers Trade Deadline Rumblings

Just listening to this morning’s Oilers Now! and Mark Spector and Bob Stauffer are talking about what the Oilers should do at the deadline. Stauffer did mention that Colorado is scouting the Oilers heavily and Mark Spector has said that he wouldn’t send Pouliot (and his contract), a 1st rounder, and a prospect for UFA Martin Hanzal. Both Stauffer and probably every Oilers fan (including myself) agree, that’s a massive overpayment.

How much would Hanzal cost the Oilers?

Elliotte Friedman said in his latest 3o thoughts:

1. We’ve been hearing about high prices for rentals. Word is Arizona’s initial ask from Montreal for Martin Hanzal was Michael McCarron and two draft picks — one a first-rounder, the other conditional. I look at it this way: You never know until you ask. But it also tells you why Hanzal is not a Canadien. We’ll see if both teams circle back.

What Stauffer did do was compare Hanzal to Antoine Vermette, this is an astute comparison I believe. Now, basic stats aside, if we just take a look at the two players and agree that they’re specialty is winning faceoffs and that that is a cog that the Oilers are currently missing, we’re good to go.

Vermette cost the Chicago Blackhawks a prospect and a 1st rounder back in 2015 and I’d be willing to bet there’s an NHL team out there that would pay a similar price for Hanzal’s services. I’d hope the Oilers aren’t one of them though because I don’t believe they are at that point in the team’s development to be mortgaging the future for short-term gains. I mean look at where the team has gone without a player like Hanzal.

I get that every team’s goal is to win but if the team is actually winning, why go out and mess with what’s already there? I mean, IF the Oilers really wanted to go out and pick Hanzal up, would the Coyotes be interested in Brandon Davidson and a package centred around him? We’ve heard Michael Stone’s name bandied about in connection with the Oilers in the past, would the Coyotes take Pouliot plus for Stone and Hanzal?

It makes no sense for Edmonton to move out a ton of assets for players who won’t (assumingly) be on the team next year unless they are impact players like Kevin Shattenkirk.

That being said, I have heard that the Oilers ARE in on Hanzal. So, take that for what you will.

Moving on to a quote from Stauffer:

“Danny Lapierre from COL, another team that’s really tight financially, they don’t spend a lot of money. I can’t recall in the last four years seeing COL scout the Oilers in back to back games in different cities. 

COL needs defense, that’s no question. They need a lot of things… I know they’ve got a little bit of an analytics push there as well” – Stauffer

First off, who’d want to be scouting the Oilers B2B in different cities in the past 4 years? Lol. But I do find it interesting that Stauffer tossed that little tidbit about analytics in there at the end.

Could the Avalanche have interest in Mark Fayne, Benoit Pouliot, or Brandon Davidson? Are there any players in COL that Edmonton would like to bring in? I mean apart from the obvious ones.

Slumping centre Joe Colborne’s name has been surfacing lately. Former Bruin Carl Soderberg as well. I’ve always liked John Mitchell. Could the Oilers use an energy winger like for Shark Matt Nieto?

The key players (assets) for the Oilers at the deadline are, in my opinion, Benoit Pouliot, Brandon Davidson, and Mark Fayne.

The Oilers are desperate to move Mark Fayne’s contract. He’s basically being paid big league dollars to rehab Griffin Reinhart’s fledgling career at the moment and doing a fine job might I add but that’s too much money to be playing in the AHL. The Oilers need that money off of the books so that they can give it to the handful of RFAs needing re-signing this summer. If Mark Fayne could skate like Kris Russell, I imagine he’d be in Edmonton instead of the Caroline Kid.

Brandon Davidson SHOULD be picked up by Las Vegas or at least that is the narrative we’re being fed by the online community and MSM. I don’t believe it. He’s injury prone and hasn’t been able to get back to the level he was at last season. I think Vegas will have plenty of chances to select a better player in the expansion draft.

Benoit Pouliot has really found his niche on the wing with Nugent-Hopkins and Eberle. He’s been playing like a man possessed recently and it’s made me forget about the first 40 games of the year where he was invisible apart from taking shitty penalties from time to time. We’ve been treated to his ferocious forecheck for a couple of weeks now and one really has to wonder if it’d be a good idea to move him out before the playoffs? Would you be comfortable with Pouliot’s risk/reward ratio in the playoffs? How would Nuge/Eberle play without that big winger going in and doing the dirty work for them? Not that they are adverse to getting in there themselves, but it looks like the line is better when Pouliot is doing it.

Could Anton Slepyshev replace Benoit Pouliot? He’s not one to take unnecessary penalties and I’d say he’s on par in the skills and size department. One major plus in Slepy’s column is that his contract is a million times better. Contracts going forward are important, right? Price points and balance is how this team will be set up for long-term success.

What will happen with Jesse Puljujarvi is one last point I’d like to make. How much progress will he have to make in Bakersfield in order for the Oilers to feel comfortable enough in moving an NHL player so that he can be brought up to play in said player’s stead? From what I’ve seen of his play in the AHL, he needs to spend the whole season there and possibly part of next before he’s brought up and given significant minutes.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.