Edmonton Oilers: Why They Traded Brandon Davidson

The Edmonton Oilers made an odd deal during their game against the St. Louis Blues Tuesday, shipping out one of their top prospective defenders.

Edmonton acquired David Desharnais from the Monreal Canadiens, and in return, shipped Brandon Davidson off to Montreal.

The 25-year-old blueliner had a breakout year in 2015-16 and was one of the team’s best up-and-coming defenders. Having battled injuries, adversity and cancer to crack the NHL, Davidson has been on one big journey. And though he has found his place, recurring injuries are a concern this team likely took into concern before shipping him out.

Edmonton Oilers

Though the Oilers once saw Davidson as one of the depth members of their defence corps, Edmonton found themselves having to trade a potential top-four blueliner. And here is why this trade works.

Edmonton’s situation at the expansion draft gets a bit sticky, especially considering the lengthy list of players they have to protect. Right now, the Oilers are poised to use the 7-3-1 system, protecting seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender.

The Oilers have to protect Andrej Sekera, who possesses a no-trade clause. The two other defenders that Edmonton would obviously protect would be Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom, who have grown to sit atop Edmonton’s blueline depth. Of course, Darnell Nurse and Matthew Benning are in their ELCs, so they would not have to be protected. This leaves Kris Russell and Eric Gryba exposed. However, these aren’t highly sought-after names, and both become UFAs in July.

The Oilers would have had to expose Davidson, and more likely than not, Vegas would have taken him anyway. He was the odd man out, mainly because the Oilers now have the depth and versatility to survive without him. If he went to Vegas, Edmonton would have lost one of their top defenders all for naught.

Therefore, in a way, they needed to trade Davidson so that they could at least get a return. With Nurse drawing back in, as well as the new proven depth down the right side, he no longer truly slotted in on a game-to-game basis for the Oilers.

While Davidson still has a bright future, it wasn’t going to play through completely in this organization. At some point, someone would take him; at least the Oilers got a solid bottom-six forward in return.