Yesterday was a tough day to be a Calgary Flames fan, which means it was a good day to be an Edmonton Oilers fan. It seems as if four of their top players, including Tyler Toffoli, will not be back at the end of their current contracts.
Frank Seravalli reported that on top of Tyler Toffoli, it is likely that Elia Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, and Mikael Backlund will not be re-signing with the Calgary Flames after this season. This is a huge problem for the Calgary Flames who just had Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk do the same thing last offseason.
I thought the Flames did a good job handling the fact they lost their two best players last season. I thought it was the Calgary Flames goaltending that really let them down last season. Either way, the Calgary Flames are going to need to make some moves as it looks like they will be going full rebuild.
The Edmonton Oilers Need To Try And Take Advantage Of Flames Misfortunes
When a player gives you an indication that they aren’t going to re-sign with your organization you need to make sure that you at least get something for them back in a trade. This is why you see so many UFAs move at the trade deadline.
If you are going to lose a player anyways, you may as well get something back for him. The Edmonton Oilers could be the team that helps lessen the pain for the Calgary Flames by taking one of these highly skilled players off their hands.
In my opinion, the best option for the Edmonton Oilers would be Tyler Toffoli. Toffoli is a goal-scoring right winger. This is exactly where there is a hole in the Edmonton Oilers top 6. It is a match made in heaven.
Toffoli, who scored 34 goals last season, is signed for one more year at a $4.25M AAV, but $3.5M in cash. Good value contract.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 22, 2023
At this point in his career, Tyler Toffoli is guaranteed to score at least 20 goals. He has done this throughout most of his career and he has never played with the highly skilled centers that the Edmonton Oilers have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would be able to get close to 40 if he was in the Oilers’ top 6.
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What Would A Trade For Tyler Toffoli Look Like?
Bringing in Toffoli will not be an easy acquisition for the Edmonton Oilers. First of all, teams do not really like trading players within their divisions. There is nothing worse than trading a player only to see him score goals against you 4 games a year.
Secondly, as I mentioned above Toffoli is a goal scorer. He scored 34 goals last season on the Flames. The Flames on the other hand don’t have much power either as they do at least want to get something for Toffoli, there will be a number of teams interested in him, so the Flames will need to start a bidding war.
This is where the Edmonton Oilers need to be careful. They can’t go over spending on a rental, there is always a chance Toffoli would re-sign, but you can’t bank on it happening. Not to mention he has a $4.25 million cap hit. That will not be easy to fit into Edmonton’s budget. Here is my best bet of what a Toffolil trade would look like.
The Calgary Flames are likely going to be headed into a rebuild so they are going to want younger players or draft picks, this trade gets them both. Kailer Yamamoto is already rumoured to be on the trade block as the Edmonton Oilers look to free up cap space to improve the team.
This is why I included him in the deal to improve the team. Since Toffoli would be taking Yamamoto’s spot in the top 6 it just makes sense to include him in this trade. My only concern here is that the Flames may be waiting for a first-round pick.
If the Flames want to hold on to Toffoli till the deadline they may be able to get a lot more for him if he is having a good season. If it is a bad season though, his price drops. The same could be used as a strategy for the Oilers.
Whether or not this trade gets done, or even thought about I just want you all to take a look at this top 6 if the Edmonton Oilers did get Toffoli.
Kane – McDavid – Hyman
Nugent-Hopkins – Draisaitl – Toffoli
This would be one of the NHL’s most elite top six’s. It already was with Yamamoto and if it got even better the Edmonton Oilers, in my opinion, would become Stanley Cup favourites, more so than they are now.