Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Can the Buffalo Sabres Make A Deal?

So who does Player A and B compare to?

Hockey-reference.com has this thing called “similarity scores” and what it does is it uses statistics to find a comparable to the player you’re looking at. Here are some of those comps to the players above:

Player A: Anton Babchuk, Niclas Havelid, Patrick Wiercioch

Player B: Rob Blake, Mike O’Connell, Jordan Leopold

Yikes for Player A…

The Edmonton Oilers are looking for a right-handed defenseman and the rumors of Rasmus Ristolainen being available won’t stop. It also doesn’t help with a member of the media who covers the Edmonton Oilers for a living says this,

“With the draft the Buffalo Sabres are about to have is Rasmus Ristolainen all of a sudden potentially up for grabs? Do you see the Buffalo Sabres saying, ‘OK, well, considering the pick they’re going to make with No. 1, can they maybe move Ristolainen out? And do they maybe look to bring a veteran Swede in to help work the blueline with their new young Swede? Is their potential for a Klefbom swap out to Buffalo, maybe along with that pick?” “I’m spitballing a lot of stuff here, but my over-riding sentiment is I believe the Oilers will be aggressive in hunting some of the big game to see if they can fill that need on the back-end.” (link)

Does this type of trade make sense?

Why I Like The Idea

I’m not convinced that will be any more than what we’ve seen. He’s a player that is injury prone to date and hasn’t put the necessary offense up apart from one season where the entire team was on a heater. And should we be happy when we hear a defender’s name being brought up in the Lady Byng conversation? I like players who play clean, but that also tells me that the player might not be going all out on the ice to stop the opposition too.

I’m also a fan of the way that Rasmus Ristolainen plays the game of hockey. He’s tough and doesn’t take any guff from forwards like Nazim Kadri for example. He can shoot the pill and simply put, he produces.

A lot of Oilers fans have an emotional attachment to Oscar Klefbom, and that’s where a lot of pushback on this deal would like within the fanbase.

I think it’s unfair to Ristolainen to criticize him with regards to how his point totals were accumulated. It’s not his fault that his GM couldn’t find his team the necessary playing personnel so that he wouldn’t have to play 26 minutes a night.

That wouldn’t be a problem in Edmonton with Adam Larsson on the club as well. And the fact that he puts up points on with the man advantage, that’s a good thing, no? I mean if you disagree there, I urge you to go back and watch the Oilers powerplay last season. An area where players who can put up points are required.

Potential Roadblocks

Another common complaint is that Ristolainen is a mediocre skater and can’t move the puck hence his terrible giveaway/takeaway ratio but I’d beg to differ. Playing on the Buffalo Sabres and not having the best linemates or team for that matter probably didn’t help.

Now if his puck management is a real concern, on the Oilers, he could be paired with Andrej Sekera who is an astute puck mover. Darnell Nurse can also move the puck.

But let’s not pretend his skating is a problem. He’s not Bobby Orr, but he’s also not Mark Fayne. Skating isn’t the issue.

That being said, Jack Eichel‘s CF% with Ristolainen was 63.35 and 49.13 without him in 630 minutes TOI. That’s just one example of his impact on high-end hockey players. Ryan O’Reilly and Sam Reinhart experienced similar results last season.

Oscar Klefbom’s 5×5 GF% last year was 43.56, and Ristolainen’s was 42.0. I want to argue that that has more to do with Buffalo, but when I look back, Ristolainen puts up similar numbers in the past. His career high was 45% two seasons ago. Whereas Klefbom’s career high was 52.85 the year the Oilers made the playoffs but that year Adam Larsson’s was 56.35, and Kris Russell’s 5×5 GF% was 54.67… (link)

We can use all sorts of numbers and statistics to dress things up to our liking but when it all comes down to it, Rasmus Ristolainen has put the points on the board, and Oscar Klefbom hasn’t.

Can this trade work?

Both Klefbom and Ristolainen are signed for the foreseeable future at reasonable cap hits. The Finn makes a shade under $5.5M per year, and Klefbom is making just over $4M a year.

IF the Oilers did make a deal with the Sabres to acquire the big Finn, they’d be sacrificing defense for offense in my opinion, BUT I do feel like that Oilers have the requisite depth on the left side of their defense to make a trade like this. Trading out of a position of “strength” to fill a hole on the right side.

And listen, this isn’t Chiarelli dealing Hall for Larsson here. They’d be swapping defencemen.

If it were me making the deal, I wouldn’t be trading that first rounder though. I’d find a way around that. Make it a second round pick or a prospect, but I think it’s imperative that the Oilers hold on to that first round pick. For most Oilers fans, I believe that the draft pick would be the hold up as well.

What do you think? Have I missed anything? If the Oilers could trade for Rasmus Ristolainen and only give up Oscar Klefbom plus a later draft pick or prospect, would you go for it? And Sabres fans, what would you need to part with your big Finnish defender?

Next: Who Should The Oilers Target This Summer?

Let us know in the comments!