The Oilers Should Trade for Phil Kessel

With the trade deadline on March 21st, the Edmonton Oilers only have a couple weeks to improve their team. One player that I think Edmonton should push to bring in is Phil Kessel. The Arizona Coyotes right winger is the right shot player the Oilers need.

Phil Kessel Regular Season Stats

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com
Generated 3/11/2022.

Kessel has averaged just under 25(24.8g/season) goals a year for his career. That would put him third on the Oilers in goals/season. He is behind only Draisaitl(29.6g/season) and McDavid(32.1g/season). So far this season he only has 6 goals, but he is playing on the Arizona, the team with the 4 least goals scored this season.

Phil Kessel is a player that could help the Edmonton Oilers in many places. He would give Edmonton another option for a top six winger. You wouldn’t be forced to have Yamamoto or Puljujarvi as your top 2 right wingers. Adding in Kessel would give you one more option.

You could play the hot player and bump down a player who is struggling. This would create more competition and hopefully force them to play harder. This would solidify a strong top 9 for the Oilers. He could also help as a dangerous shot threat on the left side on the powerplay.

Projected Oilers Lines With Phil Kessel

KANE-MCDAVID-YAMAMOTO

HYMAN-DRAISAITL-KESSEL

FOEGELE-NUGENT-HOPKINS-PULJUJARVI

RYAN-MCLEOD-BENSON/SHORE

This is a forward lineup that would match up with any team in the NHL. Not only do I think this will be good for the rest of the regular season, I think it will be good in the tough grid on the playoffs.

Phil Kessel Playoff Stats

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com:
Generated 3/11/2022.

Phil Kessel will not only help you the rest of the regular season, but he will give the Oilers a much needed boost in the playoffs. He won back to back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburg Penguins and in doing so scored a total of 18 goals on those runs.

In the Winnipeg series last season the main issue for the Oilers was goal scoring. In the 4 game sweep they scored a total of 8 goals. That just isn’t enough if you expect to win a series. Throughout his career Kessel has averaged a goal in every 3 playoff games. If the Oilers would have gotten one more goal in the Winnipeg series they would have won one of the 3 OT games.

What’s the cost?

Kessel is in the last season of his contract that has a cap hit of $6.8 million. If the Oilers want to bring him in the Coyotes would have to retain some of that cap. The percentage that they hold would be dependent on what the Oilers put into the deal.

I think the deal would look something like this:

If you look at this trade, it makes sense for both teams. Arizona is going to need some contracts that go into next season, which is why they would take Zack Kassian. Right now Arizona has 11 players that are pending UFA’s(including Kessel). They will need the Kassian deal to help them make the cap floor unless they overpay the players they sign.

Josh Archibald doesn’t make sense for the Edmonton Oilers to keep after deadline day, as he can’t travel due to his vaccination status. In Canada he can’t get on a plane, so he can play in Edmonton or he could drive to Calgary, but outside of that he won’t travel anywhere. If he is on an American team he can at least play against other American teams, which is a lot higher percentage as before.

This trade doesn’t solve all of the Edmonton Oilers problems, but it certainly helps them in one area of the game. The thing about this trade is it doesn’t take away very much of the Oilers assets that other teams will be asking for.