Wanna Three-Way?

Bob Stauffer was up to his old shenanigans again on the latest edition of Oilers Now! This time he was chatting up how the Edmonton Oilers could obtain Tyson Barrie from the Colorado Avalanche without having to deal a major piece like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle or Leon Draisaitl.

Speaking with frequent caller K-Jam, Stauffer had this to say:

BS: My guess is they’ll trade him (Barrie) before arbitration. I’ll take it one step further. People say, “Well how do you do it without trading Nugent-Hopkins?”

• You go to Anaheim and you give Anaheim a conditional no.1. A top-5 protected pick to the Anaheim Ducks plus something else not named Nugent-Hopkins or Eberle for Cam Fowler because Joe Sakic wants a defenceman back in a deal for Tyson Barrie.
• And then you give Cam Fowler and something else to Colorado and that’s how you get Tyson Barrie. But you might have to do a 3-way in order to make it happen.

BS: The reason I mention Anaheim is because Anaheim is another team who is an internal budget team. They’re a budget team and they’ve got to get Hampus Lindholm signed. And they’ve got some money to take on a forward.

• Yakupov has been mentioned in the past. I think Jason Gregor mentioned Yakupov or Pouliot after the All-Star break possibly to Anaheim. I don’t know if that’s feasible or not but if you conclude a pick and again the Oilers would have to cover themselves here.
• Worst case scenario for Edmonton, if it’s a top-5 pick, then the pick has to be moved to the following year.

BS: To me that’s how you’d do it without trading Nugent-Hopkins because you’d be prepared to give up your no.1 because if you’re Joe (Sakic), the other thing about Fowler is he’s got two years left at $4 million bucks. So maybe the price point works for him.

HOW IT BREAKS DOWN

To Edmonton: Tyson Barrie
To Anaheim: Edmonton’s 2017 first round pick plus a forward (Yak or Pouliot)
To Colorado: Cam Fowler plus another asset

I’ll tell you what. I’m completely in favour of Stauffer’s suggestion here. It doesn’t require the Oilers to deal another major piece and even if it results in the Oilers losing some depth in the forward corps. I believe there are sufficient names still available on the free agent market who could come in such as:

The Oilers have a lot of NHL forwards under contract. But one UFA who should merit consideration IMO is Brandon Pirri. Depth scorer

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) July 4, 2016

What we know about Pirri is that he’s a shooting machine and he’s put up pretty decent stats in the past (22 goals in 49 games for the Panthers in 2015/15 but only 2 assists that year… Cy Young winner!). My only question about him is why can’t he stick with a team? Chicago dealt him to the Florida Panthers for two draft picks (a 2nd and a 3rd) and then the Panthers traded him to Anaheim for a 6th round draft pick…

Other options include the likes of Kris Versteeg (30yrs), Radim Vrbata (35yrs), Jiri Hudler (32yrs), or Alex Tanguay (36yrs) if you’re looking for some veteran skill. Though they wouldn’t fit the description of heavy on the puck players. So would they really be considerations for Chiarelli?

What do you think about Bob Stauffer’s idea? Is it that cut and dry? Let me know in the comments below!