So far this past week the Edmonton Oilers have made 3 trades. They traded away Puljujarvi for cap space. Bringing in Mattias Ekholm from the Nashville Predators and then trading for Nick Bjugstad from the Arizona Coyotes yesterday.
The question now that comes from all Edmonton Oilers fans: Is Ken Holland going to make another move?
Coming into deadline season the Edmonton Oilers were looking for help in a couple of areas. They needed to add a top 4 defenseman. They would have liked to add a right-shot depth player. They also would have liked to add a top 6 right winger.
They have successfully completed the first two of those goals. Now there is only the top 6 right winger to look at acquiring. Unfortunately for the Edmonton Oilers, there is no cap space to just straight-up add a player. It is going to have to be a money-in-money-out scenario.
This trade puts #Yotes & #LetsGoOilers as 1st in 2 categories:#Yotes only team w/ 0 retentions spots available#LetsGoOilers have lowest cap space available ($0)https://t.co/7HK8nYkStp https://t.co/zJfUmHHUnb pic.twitter.com/WAOeaBqTzL
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) March 2, 2023
According to PuckPedia the Edmonton Oilers have actually $0 left in cap space. This can be seen in two ways. One, the Edmonton Oilers have no room to just add a player and that is Ken Holland’s fault. You could also look at it from the, they a getting the most that they can from their available cap.
Even if you look at most of the “trade bait” lists from around the NHL world there aren’t very many right wings that would be available that the Oilers to bring in. Players I have seen are Brock Boeser and Conor Garland from Vancouver and Nick Schmaltz from the Arizona Coyotes.
The issue with all these players is that they have large cap hits and would be very difficult for the Edmonton Oilers to bring them in. If they would look to bring them in they would likely need to move out either Yamamoto or Foegele. Unless Yamamoto is moved to LTIR one of those players would be on the way out.
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What I Think The Edmonton Oilers Plan Is
The Oilers have already checked off 2 of their three needs coming into deadline week. The third point is almost impossible to check off without really disrupting the current roster. I do not see Holland making another move for a player that makes a large impact.
He may look at bringing in perhaps a cheaper depth defenseman still, but assides from that don’t expect much from the Oilers today. I think the Edmonton Oilers are going to be using players coming off injuries to improve their current team.
Both Evander Kane and Dylan Holloway aren’t playing due to injury. When they are healthy they will be injected into the lineup and be an improvement on the player that is currently in that role. I think that this will be enough to make the Edmonton Oilers the top team in the Pacific Division and hopefully be enough to take down the defending Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche.