Oilers Taking Calls on Talbot and Nugent-Hopkins? Give Me a Break!

A wild rumor appeared last night regarding two Edmonton Oilers players and that they could be entertained for a trade offer. Is this legit or a non-story?

Edmonton Oilers: Late yesterday night a tweet appeared from a trade rumors website by the name of The Fourth Period, and it mentioned that the Oilers were taking calls on their starting goalie, Cam Talbot, as well as their shiny new No.1 left-winger, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

"The Edmonton Oilers are entertaining trade calls for goaltender Cam Talbot, TFP has learned, a situation that occurred during the regular-season, prior to the trade deadline, multiple sources said."

I don’t think that it’s out of the ordinary for teams to “entertain” calls from other GMs during the season, do you? If a GM can make a deal that will improve his club, why not make it?

I don’t believe this for a second. But one thing that would make me think a bit is if the Oilers are gauging the market to see what Talbot’s trade value is because this year will be the final year of his contract. And there’s every bit a possibility that the Oilers fail to make the playoffs again. In that scenario, why wouldn’t you trade a player who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent?

"Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has been active on the trade front recently, talking to teams about winger Milan Lucic, centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and defenceman Oscar Klefbom, in addition to Talbot."

Are they true?

Well, this is not new news. Nugent-Hopkins has been in the rumor mill for a good three seasons now. The Klefbom rumors won’t go away since they started ramping up this past season and it’s pretty common knowledge that Milan Lucic would like to work with the Oilers to facilitate a move away from Edmonton and to an American city.

"It’s speculated the Carolina Hurricanes have been in talks with Edmonton about Nugent-Hopkins and Talbot, with defenceman Justin Faulk and winger Jeff Skinner believed to be discussed."

The Carolina Hurricanes and the Oilers seem to be perfect trade partners at the moment. Edmonton needs to relieve itself of some higher paid players, and Carolina is looking for some toughness and has the cap room to acquire it. I wrote about a possible scenario previously here where both teams could help themselves.

Why make the trade?

That being said, why would the Oilers trade for Jeff Skinner? He’s Jordan Eberle but streakier and worse defensively. Not only that but he’s set to become a UFA next summer.

Justin Faulk, on the other hand, I could see them having interest in. A right-handed puck-moving defenseman is something they’ve been after since they moved Justin Schultz to the Penguins.

But going back to Cam Talbot.

Why would the Oilers move him right now? It makes no sense because they don’t have a replacement for him. That’s not to say they’re not going to acquire a goalie at the draft or this summer, but even that doesn’t make sense because as soon as they make one move, the other becomes more difficult right? Acquire another goalie, the price for Talbot goes down. Trade Talbot before acquiring another goalie and the price for the new guy goes up.

The lead up to the draft is a circus, and I don’t think they’ll be making any huge moves, to be honest.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @holtzpelle!