Should Oilers Trade All 3 First Overall Picks?

The Edmonton Oilers are in an unexpected (ok, somewhat expected) tailspin, losing their seventh straight in Dallas, Texas this evening. Any cursory browsing of Oilers’ blogs and fan sites and you will find pitchforks held high, and a certain sense of frustration that is at its highest point since the 2006 Stanley Cup run. Fans know the team needs to do something about the state of affairs for this organization, but just about everyone seems lost as to what that something should be.

I have a crazy notion. Trade Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov. Yeah, Mallett, that is crazy. Why would we let go of some of our best players. Why? Because the current mix won’t and never will work. Individually, these players are fantastic, but once the team hits the ice their impressive contributions are lost amongst the losses and mistakes. And besides, there is a precedent for such a move. (I am well aware these trades aren’t likely and in some cases impossible, but a fan can dream.)

The last time a team drafted first overall three times in a row, the dubious honor went to the maybe-coming-back Quebec Nordiques. These players were: Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan and Eric Lindros. Now, they could have chosen to keep and sign all three fellows and they would have had three amazing players on the team, similar to what Edmonton has now. They didn’t keep them however, and in the wake of the decision won the Stanley Cup.

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If the Oilers were to divest these players, could they get a good return? Well, yes, they could. Hall, centered by say a Ryan Getzlaf or an Evgeni Malkin would be hard to stop. The Nuge could become a stalwart on an Eastern Conference team, where size and grit are less of a factor. Nail Yakupov (who I think will land in Montreal next to Alex Galchenyuk) will be more successful on a team where his offensive gifts can run wild.

Let’s see if we can find an equivalent trade to the three the Nordiques made:

The Sundin Trade

Mats Sundin, Garth Butcher and Todd Warriner, plus 1994 first round pick to TORONTO
Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson plus 1994 first round pick to QUEBEC

The Nolan Trade

Owen Nolan to San Jose Sharks
Sandis Ozolinsh to Quebec

The Eric Lindros Trade

Eric Lindros to Philadelphia
Quebec received in the trade the rights to eventual Hart Trophy winner Peter Forsberg, as well as Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, a 1st round selection (Jocelyn Thibault) in 1993, a 1st round selection (later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, later traded to the Washington Capitals—Nolan Baumgartner) in 1994, and $15,000,000 cash. (Source: Wikipedia)

Now, multi-player deals like these are less common nowadays, to be sure, especially ones like the Lindros trade, which can’t really be used as a comparable, as no GM with any sanity would pull off a deal like that. Regardless, what could work for the Oilers considering the above?

Taylor Hall, Mark Arcobello, Martin Gernat and 2nd Round Pick in 2015

BACK TO OILERS:

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Martin Hanzal (in a trade with Arizona Coyotes)

Nail Yakupov, 2016 1st Round Pick, 2016 5th Round Pick

BACK TO OILERS:

Jarred Tinordi, Lars Eller, 7th Round Pick in 2015 draft (in a trade with Montreal Canadiens)

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jesse Joensuu, 2016 4th Round Pick, 2017 2nd Round Pick

BACK TO OILERS:

Andrew MacDonald, Sean Coutourier (in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers)

Of course, some of us will consider these trades near impossible. However, I judge the return to be reasonable, considering the offensive upside of the players Edmonton is releasing not to mention the plum draft picks. The least likely trade is the Hall trade, but maybe MacT can catch Coyote management on an off day. If the Oilers were to perform the above trades, the team would look like this (This also assumes Andrew Ference is history as well as assuming they selected Jack Eichel in the 2015 draft).

Eberle-Cotourier-Perron
Pouliot-Hanzal-Purcell
Eichel-Eller/Draisaitl-Hendricks
Pinizzotto-Gordon-Pitlick

and on D:

Fayne-Ekman-Larsson
MacDonald-Petry
Nikitin-Schultz

Tinordi

And hey, while I am at it, how about we trade Leon Draisaitl and Justin Schultz? (The Oilers would never make this many trades, so this is pure conjecture)

Leon Draisaitl to DETROIT

To Edmonton: Justin Abdelkader and Jonas Gustavsson

Justin Schultz to VANCOUVER

To Edmonton: Chris Tanev and 6th Round Pick in 2015 Draft

Eberle-Cotourier-Perron
Pouliot-Hanzal-Purcell
Eichel-Eller-Abdelkader
Pinizzotto-Gordon-Hendricks

and on D:

Fayne-Ekman-Larsson
MacDonald-Petry
Nikitin-Tanev

Tinordi

Naturally, all of this is a guessing game, but I think the above exercise illustrates that the Oilers would likely win more games, be much bigger and overall, have more success, if they traded the core. It would be weird to lose Yak, Hall and Nuge, but it will be far stranger to lose them for nothing if the team continues to “wander in the desert.” Perhaps the time has come. The point is that perhaps the team can leverage the core into several NHL players that play a better overall game. Having a stable of superstars isn’t always a recipe for success.

Leave your comments below and sound off! Let me know YOUR trade scenarios that have a chance of happening!

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