Worst Trade Idea Ever!

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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The Hockey Writers

Oilers and Panthers Could Pull Off Blockbuster Goaltender Trade

As per a report by Nick Kypreos said on the “Real Kyper & Bourne” Show, the Panthers are actively trying to trade a two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky and are willing to retain plenty of salary to do so. He notes during the show: “In terms of takers, who needs a goalie, and we are willing to hold cash back. And I’m told as much as 50 percent.”
…on a $5 million per season deal for four years, it’s not the worst idea. When productive, Bobrovsky is among the better goaltenders in the NHL.
Speculation is that they’ll be heavily in on Ville Husso out of St. Louis, who projects to be a great goaltender, but is still a relatively unproven option that is likely to cost $4 million over three or four seasons.
Edmonton could go for Jack Campbell if he hits free agency, but that’s going to be equally as expensive as Bobrovsky, and Campbell is far less proven.
Marc-Andre Fleury doesn’t sound keen to consider the Oilers and John Gibson has shot down the idea of a trade out of Anaheim.
Ken Holland has no issues bringing in older netminders and he’s proven he’s willing to bet a season on far longer odds.
…Florida might ask for a player like Jesse Puljujarvi, along with a draft pick and Holland might bite. The Panthers have been big proponents of analytics in the past and Puljujarvi is a dream player for numbers guys.

BLH’s Thoughts: Bobrovsky has $13.5M in signing bonuses left on his contract but only $2.5M after 2024. Even with the Panthers eating 50% of his salary, this is still an expensive player who’s well on his way to his mid-30s. Plus he’s simply too inconsistent and Florida was a much better defensively constructed team than Edmonton this past year. I can only imagine how he’d do under the Oilers’ firewagon hockey approach…

I’d much rather risk it with Ville Husso because he’s heading into the prime of his career and he wouldn’t cost anything apart from money. The concern with him is how would he do behind a less defensively-structured club. Are we looking at the next Mikka Kiprusoff or the Next Kari Takko with him though?

Lowetide

TRADE WINDS

Tyson Barrie is a player I can see being dealt, his skill set is mostly duplicated by Evan Bouchard. Barrie is more experienced, and played well in 2021-22, but one suspects he could be dealt this summer. He has value and the contract isn’t impossible for his next team to take on.
Josh Anderson gets mentioned a little by many, or maybe it’s a lot by few. Either way, Anderson’s cap hit ($5.5 million AAV) and contract length (five years) mean he is a significant investment.
If the Oilers are pursuing Anderson, that’s a tell imo on the Evander Kane negotiations.
It appears many believe Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway and Xavier Bourgault are off limits for several folks on the board. I agree with that idea almost always, as GM Ken Holland will value his own selections more than the previous regime’s picks.
I don’t think Holland would actively shop Bourgault or Holloway, but if that’s part of the ask, and the return is an upgrade on the current roster (and can help over the next three seasons), I can see management pulling the trigger.
The final point I would like to make and it’s about Jesse Puljujarvi. I’m not sure the Oilers will trade him this summer, for two reasons.
- …his second half had a negative impact on his value. He may not fetch enough to justify a trade due to the downbeat after Covid.

BLH’s Thoughts: I was listening to the Cult of Hockey’s podcast the other day and they were saying that Tyson Barrie is probably worth more to another club than he is to the Oilers considering he could be playing top-4 minutes and QB-ing their top PP unit, but at the same time, his two-way game in the post-season this year improved by leaps and bounds. It made me wonder if Holland would consider holding onto Barrie if the right trade doesn’t present itself.

Josh Anderson’s salary is what I’m expecting the Oilers’ best offer to Evander Kane to be, $5.5M/yr. To add to that, if Kane nor Anderson make their way to Edmonton in the next calendar year, it wouldn’t shock me if Ken Holland had that $5.5M earmarked for somebody else to play in Edmonton’s top six.

Not landing Kuzmenko probably sucked for Dutch but between Vancouver, Florida, and Vegas, the grand city of Edmonton, Alberta wasn’t going to cut it. Especially for a Russian coming to the NHL for the first time.

As for Jess, all I’ve been told is that whatever you hear via the media is just certain people drumming up interest in him. His teammates love having him on the team but he’s simply a solitary fella off the ice. The other thing is, Oilers Twitter is basically an analytics department on it’s own as they defend Pulju against the eye-test crowd and that’s free info for any team keeping an ear to the ground on JP. Why do the work to get those numbers when Oilers Twitter can do it for you? LOL!

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

(Frank) Seravalli wondered if Zito would consider trading goaltender Spencer Knight with Sergei Bobrovsky carrying a hefty long-term contract making him difficult to move.
Matthew Fairburn speculated on how the Buffalo Sabres will address their goaltending depth for next season.
- Free-agent goalie candidates could include Marc-Andre Fleury, Darcy Kuemper, Ville Husso, Jack Campbell and Braden Holtby. Trade options could include the Anaheim Ducks’ John Gibson or the Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck.
(Lance) Lysowski also speculated that Victor Olofsson could be a trade candidate.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was wondering if the Edmonton Oilers might revisit their rumored interest in Ville Husso from earlier this season.

NHLRumors.com

On Vancouver adding a top-4 dman: “I do expect top four addition to being a priority for the Canucks, whether that is in free agency, on the trade market, or in some other manner.” – Thomas Drance
On Connor Brown: “If the Sens can’t or won’t extend Brown, the obvious is a trade. That can happen this summer or at the deadline. Right now he’s a key part of the team, and the team is under pressure to win games. He would easily bring back a 1st at the deadline, and then you slide (Ridley) Greig in.” – Shawn Simpson
If the Penguins need to replace Malkin, Vincent Trocheck and Ryan Strome could be possible options. Paul Stastny and Andrew Copp would be in the next tier.
… the Montreal Canadiens will move defenseman Jeff Petry if they can find the right return for him. Multiple teams are reportedly interested in Petry… The Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, and Pittsburgh Penguins have shown some recent interest.

BLH’s Thoughts: If the Oilers either shed the salaries of Oscar Klefbom and Mike Smith or they go back on LTIR, that’s another $6M available to the Oilers on top of the $7M they’ve already got open… If they could move one, two, or all three of Tyson Barrie, Zack Kassian, and Warren Foegele, that’s around $10M give or take… Potentially. Ken Holland could have over $20M to work with if everything went to plan.