Had This Deal Gone Down, Could the Oilers Have Kept Hall?

I came across a guest post on another website the other day and there was a gentlemen out of Toronto who wrote something very interesting…

So i was talking to someone with direct knowledge of the situation that there was almost a 3 way trade done on day 1 of the draft just before it began.

They had mentioned that there was a trade in the works that would have sent the 3rd overall pick (clb) to calgary for the 6th overall pick + but that the blue jackets did not want to move to the 6th spot.

Enter the oilers 4th overall pick peter chiarelli was in and almost made this trade

blue jackets
ryan nugent-hopkins
4th overall pick (edm)

flames
3rd overall pick (clb)
sonny milano

oilers
6th overall pick (cgy)
dougie hamilton

this was the entire proposed trade i asked him twice to make sure but he said these were all the parts no additions anywhere , he also said this trade was essentially done until the last second when the blue jackets gm jarmo Kekäläinen played his hand a little quick , mentioned he had dubios above puljujarvi and that was the comment that killed the trade. chiarelli pulled out once he realized that he could get puljujarvi with the 4th overall and that stopped all wheels in motion.

That would’ve been a killer I say. Now it’s all hearsay and rumour at this point of course. We’ll never know if this is actually true or not but how would’ve this deal changed the landscape of the Oilers as we know them today?

• Is it safe to assume that the team would’ve still gone and signed Lucic? I say yes.
• Bob Stauffer has intimated that the Oilers had Mikhail Sergachev at the no.4 spot behind Puljujarvi. I’ll say they would’ve taken him at no.6 but they would’ve had their choice or Juolevi or Tkachuk as well.
• Who would slot in at 3C? Caggiula? A free agent? Not sure they’d have had the cash to bring in anybody significant.

Here’s how the roster might’ve looked had the deal gone down.

Lucic-McDavid-Yakupov
Hall-Draisaitl-Eberle
Pouliot-XXX-Kassian
Maroon-Letestu-Pakarinen
Hendricks, Lander

Klefbom-Hamilton
Sekera-Fayne
Nurse-Davidson
Reinhart

Talbot
Gustavsson

Down Nugent-Hopkins but up on defence with Dougie Hamilton. We know that the Oilers did in fact talk to the Blue Jackets GM and the Flames GM at the draft (Stauffer has mentioned this on his show as well) and we also know that Chiarelli was trying to get Hamilton out of Boston at last year’s draft.

Walter Foddis had this to say when comparing Larsson to Hamilton:

That’s a tough one. Hamilton is better offensively, whereas Larsson is better defensively. Looking  at some metrics, Hamilton’s eGF% vs top-end competition is better than Larsson’s, especially against top-pairing D-men. Hamilton’s eGF% vs top-pairing Dmen was 47.3% & Larsson’s was 39.5%.

Overall, Larsson’s CA RelTM is -4 and Hamilton’s +2, which suggest Larsson is stronger defensivelly. That is, Larsson’s NJD allowed 6 fewer shot attempts/60 minutes than Hamilton’s Flames.

The opposite is true for offense, though. Hamilton’s Flames generated 11 more shot attempts per 60 minutes than Larsson’s NJD.

So although Larsson appears be stronger defensively, Hamilton’s offensive game more than compensates for this deficiency.

Comparing them on the WoodMoney metric would be interesting.

Would the Oilers still be looking for that PP QB? Chiarelli did say that the Hall deal was going down regardless but I have to call bullsh*t on that if Hamilton could’ve been acquired…

I don’t like the idea of the Oilers having poor depth at centre but one would have to think that had this scenario gone down as such that the Oilers would’ve traded one of the left-wings (Pouliot most likely) for a serviceable third line center.

What are your thoughts on this rumor? Would you have rather had Hall, Lucic, Hamilton and Sergachev, or Nugent-Hopkins, Lucic, Larsson, and Puljujarvi? Which grouping would’ve made the Oilers a better team?

Let me know in the comments below!

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