Should The Edmonton Oilers Trade Their First-Round Pick?

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WINNIPEG, MB October 16: Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers (27) boards Edmonton Oilers defenseman Matthew Benning (83) during the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers game on October 16, 2018 at the Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg MB. (Photo by Terrence Lee/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Does it make sense for the Jets?

We just talked about how a quality player like Ehlers would make a difference for this Oilers team right away, so why in the world would a contender in Winnipeg Jets ever want to part ways with him at this time? Well actually, there are three reasons, so let’s dive into them:

1. Cap Crunch

This offseason the Winnipeg Jets have to resign Patrick Laine, Kyle Connor, Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, and many others. They also currently only have 3.9 million in cap space.

Now the cap is expected to increase by 4 million next season, they could let Kevin Hayes walk in free agency, and they could find a way to move Dmitry Kulikov’s contract. This would clear up some significant cap space, but this is still going to be a tight squeeze to make it happen.

Maybe they can find a way to make it work, but the next two points are going to explain why it would be best for the Jets to avoid this headache altogether and instead decide to move on from Ehlers.

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