Oilers: Chimera Coming Home, Hollywood Lucic, and Oilers/Habs Talking?

We’ll be looking at all the trade rumors surrounding the Edmonton Oilers as Draft Day approaches in a week or so.

Edmonton Oilers: The trade speculation is coming fast and furious as we tip-toe closer to the 2018 NHL entry draft in Dallas. Most recently an amateur insider by the name of Josh Marshall has been tweeting out Oilers rumors almost daily. Let’s look at a couple of them.

IF true, I’d love this move on some levels. I genuinely believe that the Oilers made a huge mistake letting Matt Hendricks walk and sign with Winnipeg. He was the ultimate vet that did what needed to be done on the ice and off of it, and from my understanding, he did an outstanding job with the Oilers tough guys (Lucic, Kassian, Maroon) the year they went to the playoffs.

Jason Chimera could come into the Oilers organization and pick up right where Hendricks left off in my opinion. He’s 39 years old and probably in the last year of his career, so what better way to go out than to go home and retire with the team that gave him his start.

Physically, he can still skate like the wind. He doesn’t score much anymore, but if you could get 20 pts out of him in a bottom-6 role on the cheap, maybe $1M or $1.25M, I believe he’d be well worth the money.

Another rumor about Lucic

First off, I do not want the Oilers to trade Milan Lucic and especially not to another Pacific Division team! I think he should come back in the fall and prove his value. To not only his teammates but also to other GMs around the league.

If he genuinely wants to help Chiarelli make this deal happen. That would be the best way to go about it. Not by forcing the Oilers to deal him after he’s had his worst season since his first year in the league.

Another thing to add here is that all of those teams mentioned above do have dodgy contracts but the players to which they’re also connected to have NMCs. So you’d have to navigate around that too. Can’t see it happening.

Another Habs/Oilers trade rumor?

The Oilers and Canadiens seem to be connected via the trade rumor grapevine every year, don’t they? But it’s always been Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ name being thrown around.

I haven’t heard any specific names, but I do want to toss out some names for you lovely readers. Habs fans, feel free to chime in!

My Picks

• Jonathan Drouin – He’s not living up to expectations in Montreal, and the fans are starting to get restless. He’s 23 years old and signed through to 2022/23, but the kicker here is he doesn’t have any no-trade/no-move clauses in his deal.The Oilers are looking for help on the wing, and especially if they end up dealing Lucic, that might open up a hole on the left side that could be perfectly filled by Drouin.At $5.5M per year, would you Drouin or $6M a year for Lucic?
• Andrew Shaw – 26-year-old former Stanley Cup winner with the Blackhawks plays a gritty Ken Linesmen-style of hockey. He’s a 3rd line center but doesn’t offer much offensively. Also can play the right wing as well. He has a contract worth $3.9M per year until 2021/22.This player has Peter Chiarelli written all over him. Unfortunately, he’s out recovering from surgery at the moment but should be ready to go around training camp.
• Paul Byron – Byron will be an RFA after this next season, but he’s been massively outperforming his contract the past two seasons scoring a combined 42 goals while only being paid $1.667M a year. The Oilers would do well to acquire Byron due to his speed on the forecheck and transition, as well as his newfound ability to put the puck in the net. An addition like this would help the Oilers bottom-6 by making it more of an offensive threat.

What do you think about these rumors? Let me know on Twitter @holtzpelle