Edmonton Oilers: The Brandon Manning Trade Makes No Sense

The pressure is obviously on for Chiarelli after making a flurry of moves on Sunday. But instead of helping his case, he caused the outrage of the entire  Edmonton Oilers fanbase when he traded Drake Cagguilla and Jason Garrison in exchange for Brandon Manning and Robin Norrell. 

Edmonton Oilers: Some of you should remember the name, Brandon Manning. You know, the one who crushed your dreams of playoffs in 2015 when he drove Connor McDavid into the boards, resulting in a broken collarbone. To top it all off this is a player that Mcdavid once called out to the media as being “classless” after Manning allegedly admitted to intentionally injuring the superstar.

Now, Peter Chiarelli did receive Mcdavid’s blessing, and the best player in the game wasted no time to reach out to the 28-year old defencemen and welcome him to Edmonton. So it sounds like they should be professionals about it and everything will be fine.

But that’s not what fans are pissed off about. The fact that Chiarelli had to trade for Brandon Manning of all people is an absolute spit to the face to those who cheer for the Orange and Blue and were disgusted by the actions of Manning after taking out their team’s franchise player.

Brandon Manning will always be public enemy number one. This trade represents the betrayal of management for fans who held that view. And each and every one of those fans should be taking that personally.

Peter Chiarelli would be lying to anyone he told that Manning was the only guy available to help fill a gap in our d-core that is struggling from injuries. There are plenty of depth defencemen around the league that could have been had in a trade… and most make less than 2.25 million dollars for the next two seasons.

But the real question should be why the Oilers are trading for another third pairing d-man. They already have five guys who slot into a number 6-7 position on any healthy NHL roster.  This is going to result in some major backups in 5 weeks time when the Oilers injured defencemen finally return. And it could result in us paying Manning 2.25 million to keep the press box seats warm.

And then guess what Chiarelli decides to toss into a trade for another third pairing d-man? None other than one of the teams only depth forwards that has managed to put goals up on the board. Playing just 29 games, Drake Cagguilla was fifth in goals for the Oilers so far this season.

Ken Hitchcock has mentioned relentlessly in his press conferences how desperate this team is for offensive contributors. If anything it was time to upgrade from Cagguilla, not dump him for another defenceman who is likely going to shore up in Bakersfield by March.

However, Cagguilla has been one of Edmonton’s least reliable forwards in the defensive zone. And part of me thinks this trade was more about Chiarelli finding a way to dump Cagguilla while also getting someone to shove in as a stop gap to a depleted d-core. But where do you put Manning in 5 weeks?

You still have to pay him next year so you would hope there is some kind of plan here. If he really wanted to dump Cagguilla it seems it would have made a lot more sense to move him for a draft pick rather than take on a pricey low-end defenceman.

Nobody should fool themselves into thinking Manning is an NHL regular.  This is a guy who hasn’t touched the ice for the Blackhawks since December 12. And it’s not like Chicago has put together a bolstering lineup to try and crack.

Even they can’t find a reason to put a 28-year-old Manning into their lineup. A guy who has given them little reason to since going -14 and generating just 3 points in the 27 games he played with the club this season.

Ken Hitchcock just finished saying how impressed he has been with Caleb Jones since he has been brought up. So why bring in another left-handed guy who has no business playing in your top four defense group. I would much rather see Jones or Kevin Gravel get that opportunity on the third pair of a healthy roster considering how solid they have been.  Not to mention that both are making less than a million dollars.

If either Jones or Gravel takes that spot, it will leave Brandon Manning the odd man out. And the Oilers are still going to have to pay him 2.25 million regardless. This was just a complete and utter irrational financial decision for a team already strapped for cap space.

What happens if a team comes knocking with the top 6 forward the Oilers have been dreaming of adding to their roster? Or a proven depth scoring winger becomes available on the Free Agent market?

Well, you can add an overpaid 7th defencemen to the list of pieces we would have to move in order to clear up enough cap space to make one of those moves happen.

Look I haven’t watched Brandon Manning play even a little bit. So maybe the scouts saw something there.  But he really hasn’t given fans any reason to think that he will be the guy that will come in here and solve the Oilers temporary blueline woes.

That along with the fact that we had to move a scoring winger from a lineup desperate for goal scorers, and make a financial commitment to a player that hasn’t proven he can stick a spot on an NHL roster— makes this another trade to add to the mind-boggling moves by Peter Chiarelli.

This one was different though… this one hurt.