Oilers Rumors: Edmonton Looking to Acquire Blues Defenseman?

There have been rumors surfacing yesterday surrounding the Edmonton Oilers and the St. Louis Blues. Do you buy them or no?

Edmonton Oilers: Three tweets in 24 hours from sources reliable, questionable, and not one bit have surfaced connecting the Oilers to St.Louis Blues defenseman Colton Parayko. No word on which players would be going to the Blues in return for the stud defenseman who hails from the Edmonton area.

I do not have the foggiest idea as to why the Blues would be interested in trading Colton Parayko. He’s a nicer lesser talented version of Chris Pronger. It’s obvious why the Oilers would want him though, and I don’t think having McDavid and Parayko on the PP during the World’s for Team Canada helped.

What to Make of It?

In my opinion, any team that is contacted by the Edmonton Oilers in an attempt to make a trade is probably starting the negotiations with Leon Draisaitl. Especially if the Oilers are inquiring about the services of a top-4 right-handed defenseman, who can man the powerplay and produce offensively.

For me, that’s a non-starter. There’s no point in creating a logjam on defense while at the same time creating a MASSIVE hole in the offense. I wouldn’t trade Leon Draisaitl for Erik Karlsson, so there’s no way I’m dealing for Colton Parayko.

What I’d do is try and model a trade similar to the one that got the Oilers the original Chris Pronger. And that return was three young defenseman named Eric Brewer, Jeff Woywitka, and Doug Lynch.

Of course, at the time of that trade the Blues were having cashflow problems, and undoubtedly that affected the return they got for Pronger. But what if the Oilers offered Oscar Klefbom, Caleb Jones, and Filip Berglund? OR Oscar Klefbom, the 10th overall pick, and Ostap Safin?

What would you offer the Blues that would force them to think about trading a player like Colton Parayko? I’d do Klefbom, maybe Willliam Laggesson, and possibly Tyler Benson.

I know the Oilers want to upgrade that back-end with a point producing a right-handed shot. But if there’s any year that they should be sitting on their hands, it’s this one.

Let us know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @holtzpelle