The Edmonton Oilers are in the middle of a large streak of games where they haven’t been able to put together many wins. They only have 2 wins in their last 13 games. Whenever a team goes on a run like that, fans look for something to be done to change things up. One of the options is improving your team via a trade.
There are several areas that the Edmonton Oilers could address to help this team. It is no secret that the Oilers would like to add either of the following a scoring winger, depth center, veteran defenseman or a starting goalie.
The problem with making a trade is it is not easy to just improve your team. If it was that easy, every team would be making trades. There are several issues that arise in making a trade for a roster player in the NHL. Not all teams have the same issues as the Edmonton Oilers, but there are a few reasons the Oilers are going to have issues making a trade.
Roster Players
If the Edmonton Oilers want to pick a top player off of another team’s roster, that team is going to need to replace that player in their lineup. Most teams will just move a player up the depth chart, but some teams will want another player back to fill that spot.
This is an issue for the Oilers. The Oilers don’t really have very many NHL players that other teams are going to want back in return. There are only a few players in the bottom 6 that have been cycling through the lineup. This includes Brendan Perlini, Colton Sceviour, and Kyle Turris. I have no issues with these players, but teams aren’t lining up to have those players on their team.
Salary Cap Constraints
Per CapFriendly the Edmonton Oilers currently only have $920,833 in cap space. With that little cap space left, there aren’t many additions that the Oilers can make without cap space going the other way or the other team retaining salary.
When it comes to sending or retaining cap space the Edmonton Oilers are going to have add more assets to the trade to entice a team to make a deal. This will cause the Oilers to overpay in a trade. If the player will help the team I am okay with a bit of an overpay, but it is safe to say that most of the fan base will not be okay with it.
Dealing From Weakness
The rest of the NHL know that the Edmonton Oilers are barely treading water. This is a professional sports league where being better than the other teams is the main goal. So do not expect any team to give the Oilers a helping hand.
The other 31 teams in the league watch the Edmonton Oilers play. With watching them play it is easy for them to see where the weak areas are for the Oilers. If they get a phone call from Oilers Management there are not going to be easy on them. They are going to squeeze everything they can out of the Edmonton Oilers, because the other teams are dealing from an area of strength. This is also another reason that the Oilers are going to have to overpay if they want to make a trade right now.
The Future Edmonton Oilers
If the Edmonton Oilers don’t want to give up anything from the current NHL roster, they can trade away top prospects. The Edmonton Oilers finally have a decent prospect pool going and I think trading them away is only going to hurt this team in the long term.
The only option in my opinion when trading away a top-level prospect is to get a player back that has term left on his contract. If the Edmonton Oilers trade away a top prospect that will in 2-3 years help your team, I think you need to get more than a rental back. Giving away a prospect or a draft pick for a rental has always seemed like a bad move from my point of view.
I know that lots of people following the Edmonton Oilers believe that there need to be a major change. This may be true and maybe the thing that turns this slump around. The problem is it is not as easy as many people think it is. For every change that is potentially made there are going to be negatives that come out of it. It is up to Ken Holland to weigh the negatives against the positive and make an educated decision.