Edmonton Oilers: Post Trade Deadline Day Breakdown
Well, it’s another trade deadline day come and gone for the Edmonton Oilers. For anyone expecting any major moves, you set yourself up for naive disappointment and it’s your own fault for thinking so.
After all, let’s think about this for a minute – the Edmonton Oilers top six forward group is solid and healthy now. While the top four D group might not have a lot of sexy names in it, it too is solid with two great puck movers – Nurse and Bouchard – at the top of the forefront with Tyson Barrie able to come back in a pinch as well – and two great defensive types in Ceci and Keith who have really found their games at the right time of the season who are also capable of kicking in secondary offence (Ceci has already met my expectations in this area with 20 points on the season at the time of this writing, while Keith is getting close at 16 and could very well finish well above that mark if his current scoring rate holds up [29 points projected for him right now]). All of these players are healthy right now as well.
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While goaltending was the one area we could expect a major move in if one is to be made, we’ve heard that Ken Holland has been working the phones pretty furiously prior to the deadline trying to look for help, but any moves made would’ve either been only a lateral move at best and thus not a good hockey trade in the right direction (ahem….Joonas Korpisalo), or the GM was naively asking for way too much in return, as was the case in New York for Alexandar Georgiev (a first round pick for a struggling goaltender? What is GM Chris Drury thinking? Now he’s going to get a lot less in trade for him or lose him for nothing). Also factoring into the equation is Koskinen has been playing better as of late, perhaps trying to disprove the myth that he’s a 1A type at best. Mike Smith has also looked better since he came back from his last injury (hopefully for the last time). We can’t start next season with this duo, but for now at least it should work.
Then there’s the issue of our cap space, which is right at the max right now. I think Holland mentioned in his post-dd presser that the Edmonton Oilers have $1000 of cap space left, just enough to call up one player prior to the end of the season.
All the teams that made the big splashes yesterday all had more cap space than the Edmonton Oilers did. The Edmonton Oilers didn’t have the cap space to make big moves, nor did they really need to. So, that being said, let’s analyze the two moves they did make yesterday.
Edmonton Oilers acquire Brett Kulak from the Canadiens in exchange for William Laggeson, a conditional 2022 second round pick, and a 2024 seventh round pick. Montreal retains 50% of Kulak’s cap hit ($925,000) and the condition to the second round pick is if the Oilers reach the Cup Final this year that pick reverts to a 2023 second round pick.
Now for me personally, I take no exception whatsoever to the names in this trade. Kulak is a solid third pairing dman and a valuable rental for the playoffs. I also don’t object to Laggeson being the name exported, seeing as how he was slated to be third in line for the third pairing left D spot next season, the Edmonton Oilers could afford to part with him. Laggeson will have more opportunity in Montreal, where the team is starting on full-on rebuild and where there isn’t such a logjam of prospects for his spot.
I’m a bit perplexed as to why a seventh round pick was thrown in as I don’t think it was a necessary sweetener, but I’ll excuse it as either way it’s not worth very much to us.
What I do object to in this trade is sending over a second round pick for a third pairing d-man. What is Holland thinking here? I can’t figure this out. Yeah the guy played on the top pairing for awhile in Montreal, but let’s not forget this is a team that’s last in the Atlantic division this season. Playing on the top pairing for a bottom feeding team isn’t much to write home about.
Why was it necessary to part with a second rounder for a bottom pairing blueliner? That’s way too big an over payment. Furthermore, we can see why Kulak is largely a third pairing rental when you look closer at his stats. He’s got 13 points right now, only four off his career pace, but is riding a career worst -10 right now. He’s also set a career best in PIMs with 33.
In Kulak I see a more veteran version of Markus Niemelainen only worse defensively and with slightly better hands.
Even if Montreal GM Kent Hughes insisted on a second round pick, I’d have insisted on more rigid conditions to the pick – for example it should be a fourth round pick at best, but if Kulak ends up playing on the Oilers’ top pairing for more than half the remaining regular season and playoffs – and the Oilers reach the Cup Finals – NOW Montreal can have our second round pick.
After all, it’s one thing to play on the top pairing on a rebuilding team, it’s quite another to play in the top pairing on a team with actual depth like the Oilers.
If Hughes balks at that point, then the trade falls apart. After all, you really think Kulak is one of a kind as a d-man? Guys like him are a dime a dozen around the NHL – and most GMs wouldn’t have asked for a second round pick for a third pairing guy.
I’m starting to think that Holland’s penchant for negotiation is both a blessing and a curse. He seems so laser focused on one or two guys he doesn’t seem to realize he’s getting hosed in a trade. It’s great that he does his due diligence on pickups, that’s all well and good, but if the opposing GM is obviously asking for too much then he needs to say no more. I mean, Steve Yzerman is a tough negotiator but you don’t see any other GMs shying away from doing business with him.
Holland had a very short and sweet media availability post deadline yesterday, and I’m starting to think perhaps he doesn’t like the hard questions that inevitably come afterwards. He didn’t really address this much yesterday, or at least didn’t give the full story as to why the second round pick.
Edmonton Oilers acquire Derick Brassard from the Flyers in exchange for a 2023 fourth round pick. Flyers retain 50% ($412,500) of Brassard’s cap hit.
Now this is more like it.
This is a much better trade. Poaching veterans from a rebuilding team for playoff rental depth is classic Holland. We don’t have a fourth rounder this year because it was dealt away to New Jersey last deadline for renting Dmitry Kulikov, hence the 2023 pick.
Brassard had been playing second line center for the rebuilding Flyers this year, so he’s coming to a much better team to play a reduced role, slated for fourth line center.
As you would expect the 34 year old Brassard is much more a natural bottom six forward as opposed to a top six forward. He put up six goals and 16 points in 31 games played for the Flyers this year, which as a top six forwards is….meh.
The Flyers are just running out the clock on the season so they don’t really need Brassard long term.
If I had to guess I’d hope that Brassard will come here and put up anywhere between 5-15 points in the remainder of the season and using his 117 games of playoff experience to give the bottom six an infusion of experience, energy, and depth. He’ll probably platoon with Ryan Mcleod and Nuge (who’s expected back from injury at the time of this writing by next week) for the bottom six center positions. He’s even been to a Stanley Cup final, in 2014 with the Rangers.
The Edmonton Oilers could use that experience in their lineup.