3 Oilers That Could Still Be Traded This Offseason

RD Tyson Barrie

The idea of trading a defenseman will sound absurd, let alone a right-hand shooting defenseman, however, with Tyson Barrie, the Oilers need to find a way to somehow do it. Barrie’s cap hit for the next 2 years is at $4.5 million, and as much production the Oilers get from him, half of his points are coming from the power play.

Currently sitting as the Oilers’ 3rd pairing defenseman, Barrie’s cap hit is a burden for the Oilers, especially when the team has up-and-coming defenseman Evan Bouchard who will be a restricted free agent next season, and possesses the same skill set as Barrie. Trading Barrie not only creates more opportunities for Bouchard to excel but also gives the Oilers some cap relief to enable them to make more improvements in the line-up.  A Barrie trade will also enable the Oilers to bring up young defensemen, Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov and see what they got.

This trade will be harder to make for the Oilers due to the cap hit. It will need some Ken Holland maneuvering of draft picks to be able to entice some teams to take Barrie’s contract. However, the team cannot wait longer until next season to move him, as I mentioned above, they have Bouchard’s extension looming.