A Player From Each Team The Edmonton Oilers Could Trade For
The NHL trade deadline this season is on March 21. This marks the last day teams, including the Edmonton Oilers, are able to make changes to their team by swapping assets. It usually involves the teams lower in the standings trading away their players on expiring contracts to higher standing teams.
The teams lower in the standings in return will likely look to retrieve draft picks, prospects or players under contract in return. At this point in their season they know there is very little chance to make the playoffs so they are looking to improve their team for next year. So it is out with older players and in with newer players with potential.
The teams higher in the standings are doing the opposite. They may look at their current roster and realize they are only one or two players short of making a deep playoff run. So they will give away their future for the chance to win now.
The issue with going all in for a run is, if you don’t win you have nothing to show for it. Not only did you lose in the playoffs, but you gave away future assets for a player that will likely not help your team in the future. This is where the struggle is for a General Manager.
Are The Edmonton Oilers Buyers or Sellers?
The Edmonton Oilers as of now find themselves in a tough spot. They are not playing excellent right now, so going all in this deadline may not move the needle. The Oilers are also not bad enough to trade away players to get assets.
So this is where Ken Holland has to make a tough call. The worse thing Holland could do is to do a halfway. He can’t bring in an expiring contract for a draft pick because I don’t think they are good enough to beat either the Vegas Golden Knights or the Colorado Avalanche.
They also aren’t in a place to give players away for picks. The Edmonton Oilers fan base and the ownership need this team to make the playoffs. The fans need to see that the team is getting better and that management is actually improving this team year to year. Ownership needs to make the money that home playoff games can bring in. This means even more now in the COVID era.
Where The Edmonton Oilers Need Help
There is several areas in which the Edmonton Oilers need to improve. There is depth scoring wingers, depth center, and goaltending. This shouldn’t be news for anyone reading this article as it has been the areas that have needed help for several years.
Every team knows what the Oilers need, so that could make a trade difficult as they hold the leverage, but as the deadline approaches teams are more likely to make a trade then they are earlier in the season. So hopefully one of the NHL teams are willing to make a deal with the Oilers.
In this article I have gone through every NHL team aside from the Edmonton Oilers to see a player that could be injected into the Oilers lineup. These players are realistic players that both the team would be willing to trade and a player that could help the Oilers.
The cost to bring in some of these players would be high and other would be low. So some of the trades will help the Oilers a lot and some just help a little bit. Feel free after reading this to put in the comments on who you would like to add.