Two More Edmonton Oilers Bison King Trades

This next trade would be for the man pictured, Anthony Duclair. This one comes also from Sportsnet, this time courtesy of Frank Seravalli.

This would be a much more direct trade, but unlike the article states I find it hard to believe that Panthers GM Bill Zito would be stupid enough to trade away Duclair for Puljujarvi straight up.

Duclair was also injured, this time at the beginning of the season. He’s reportedly close to coming back, as he was scheduled to come back after the all-star break. He had successful surgery on his achilles tendon earlier in the season.

When you think about it, whether Duclair is going to be healthy in the long term or not actually works out well for the Oilers cap space-wise – after all, the contracts of Mike Smith and Oscar Klefbom will be done after this season – and they’re going to have to find $9 million of cap space next season (not including expiring contracts, of course) unless they want to make some hard decisions about salary dumping. The expiration of those two contracts means that almost $6.4 million of LTIR cap space is out the window – which is a lot to make up. if Duclair’s career is truly over that would take the Oilers to just under half of that for next season (Duclair has an additional season at the same $3 million cap hit as JP).

If he is healthy and can contribute the Oilers will have brought on a more experienced player with a more experienced track record – although JP has played more playoff games than Duclair has, Duclair last season in the playoffs for the Panthers put up the same offence as JP did in fewer games, meaning if the two had played the same amount of playoff games Duclair likely would’ve come out on top.

And remember, Duclair scored 31 goals for the Panthers just last season. The Bison King has never even cracked the 20-goal mark up to this point. He’s also solid defensively, finishing at a sparkling +27 and +19 in the two seasons he’s played in Florida.

Because Duclair is signed for one more season after this one while JP’s value to the Panthers is mostly in cap space saved for next season, this trade will be structured a little differently. That being said, Florida is at least a decent team, and you never know what effect a change of scenery will have on the player.

If Duclair is healthy enough and you add him to the current Oilers top-six forward group – there’s a great chance that the dual-side winger could form a deadly second line with Draisaitl and Kane on the port side. He would certainly help shore up the right side a lot better than the Bison King does now. If rookie Dylan Holloway starts cashing in on his spot on Connor Mcdavid’s line, that would be a situation where the Oilers top-six forward groups would be virtually unstoppable in terms of goal scoring. After all, you’d have three players capable of 40 regular season goals in Mcdavid, Draisaitl, and Kane, two potential 30-goal scorers in Hyman and Duclair, and a guy who would be a darkhorse candidate for 20 goals in Dylan Holloway. That would be an insane combo in the playoffs.

Here’s my trade for Duclair:

Personally, I think this is a better trade for both sides. The Panthers get to save some cap space next season, and the Oilers get a guy who, when healthy, is a very good scorer who should fit in well in our top six – and is signed to a pretty reasonable cap hit for next season too.

If Duclair turns out to be one injury away from retirement, or if he falters as an Oiler, then all the Oilers have given up is a fourth-round pick and a player who was never coming back here anyway. In my books, that’s a well calculated risk.

If Duclair does perform here, then Florida has another first-round pick they can use in next year’s draft. They can also decide to re-up the Bison King if they want to.