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Edmonton Oilers: The Trade is One for One, Strome for Spooner

By Ryan Boonstra

DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 09: Ryan Spooner #23 of the New York Rangers gets set for the face-off against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on November 9, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings defeated the Rangers 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - NOVEMBER 09: Ryan Spooner #23 of the New York Rangers gets set for the face-off against the Detroit Red Wings during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on November 9, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings defeated the Rangers 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers announced yesterday that they have made a trade. Ryan Strome has been moved to the Rangers in exchange for Ryan Spooner. The Rangers retain 900k in salary to balance the cap hits.

Well, it’s the end of an era for the Edmonton Oilers. The Ryan Strome experiment ends as it began with a good old 1 for 1 swap. While this tried will be criticized to high heaven because it’s the first major trade ChiaPete has made since… trading for Strome.

Why Strome Was Traded

Well to put it simply, he just wasn’t good enough. Through 18 games Strome had 1 goal and 1 assist. Not. Good. Enough. Furthermore, in his 100 career games as an Oiler, Strome has a grand total of 36 points. It became very obvious very fast to most Oilers fans and journalists that Strome was not the 50 point player that he was heralded as coming here.

One season aside Strome was a 35 point player in New York and that’s the player he was in Edmonton. Unfortunately for both Strome and the Oilers organization they had much higher expectations for what Strome could be. With the news today it all but confirms that the Strome for Eberle trade was a failure.

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Who is Ryan Spooner?

Well, who exactly is Ryan Spooner? Drafted in the second round in 2010 by Chiarelli (Yikes!) Spooner is a C/W that, while a more offensive player than Strome, lacks some of the defensive acumens Strome possesses. Standing at a small 5’11 Spooner is not a physical player, think of him as Eberle-Lite, because in the most basic sense, that’s the player he is.

Last season playing with both the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers he scored 13 goals and 28 assists for a total of 41 points in only 59 games. His most common line-mates in New York this season have been Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider on a second line where he has struggled. In 16 games this season he also only has 1 goal and 1 assist.

Acquiring Spooner is a risk. A calculated risk that the offense gained by Spooner will offset the defense gained by Strome. Strome was one of Edmonton’s mainstays on the penalty kill and Spooner does not play the PK, at all. However, Spooner has had a lot of career success on the power-play and hopefully, he can bolster Edmonton’s anemic second power-play unit.

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