The Edmonton Oilers shouldn’t deal this player.

 

The NHL trade deadline has long ago taken hockey fans’ minds as the calendar takes an extra day to change into March. Only one week remains till it happens, and in the interim, some outlier exchanges have started to take place (Chris Tanev to Dallas, Ilya Lyubushkin back to Toronto).

Fans in Oil Country yearn for another big move similar to the one that brought Mattias Ekholm in a year ago. A top-4 defenseman, a top-6 right winger, a right-shot center, a depth defender, and a goalie who can step up and win in the playoffs are all on the Oilers’ current Twitter wish list.

The team doesn’t have many tradable assets, which would free up the required space on the roster and under the salary cap. With the exception of Ekholm, who signed a four-year contract elsewhere without trade protection and was traded in the first year of the deal, every player in the $5 million+ category has trade protection in the form of no-move clauses. It’s quite safe to say that the bearded Viking is here to stay, NMC or not.

There is no real opportunity to save cap space in any player-for-player trade because the depth players at the bottom of the roster are so near to the NHL minimum.

Thus, the primary prospects for trade fall within the $2–4 million area, and there are presently 6 Oilers in this range. Veteran defensemen Brett Kulak (two more years at $2.75 million), Cody Ceci (one more year at $3.25 million), and winger Warren Foegele (expiring this June, $2.75) are the three names that have come up in almost every conversation. All three gained experience with different teams before joining the Oilers in the middle of their careers via trade or free agency. While not world-beaters, all are reliable pros.