Edmonton Oilers: Top 10 moments from 2015

Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Number Nine: The Oilers trade David Perron

On January 2nd, the Edmonton Oilers traded winger David Perron to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 2015 first round draft pick and Rob Klinkhammer.

Now, rewind here. David Perron was one of then General Manager, Craig MacTavish, best acquisitions as the Edmonton Oilers traded Magnus Paajarvi and a second round pick for the scrappy winger in the summer of 2013.

Perron would only last a season and a half in Edmonton. It would not be a stretch to say that Perron was a fan favourite while he played in Edmonton as he brought a gritty, pain in the ass game that added some variety to the team. In his only full season with the Edmonton Oilers, Perron posted career highs in goals (28) and points (57) and Penalty in Minutes (90).

However, his second year on the team, Perron Struggled and newly signed Benoit Pouliot outplayed him. In this near New Year’s Day trade, The Oilers ended up acquiring a first round pick and a useful depth player in Klinkhammer.

Was it a good trade?

I’d say yeah it was for the Edmonton Oilers as they ended up with a high draft pick due to Pittsburgh’s quick exit in the playoffs (which ended up being 16th overall; used for the Griffin Reinhart trade) and Klinkhammer proved to more useful than the throw-in I envisioned.

Still, this trade stands out because I remember how I felt reading the news: The Oilers yet again traded a player for magic beans and were sellers yet again. They had a dreadful season that year and Perron did not exactly play lights out in Pittsburgh (in 74 games played, Perron only has 33 points). It was a bitter pill because the Oilers were “rebuilding: yet again. I felt frustrated that the Edmonton Oilers had to trade away proven players rather than acquire them. As it would turn out, Perron was not the only player to be shipped out for mythical magic beans.