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2 Drastic Changes The Oilers Need To If Losing Continues

By Devon Hladunewich

NEWARK, NJ - JANUARY 07: Assistant coach Jay Woodcroft of the Edmonton Oilers takes part in the morning skate at Prudential Center on January 7, 2017 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - JANUARY 07: Assistant coach Jay Woodcroft of the Edmonton Oilers takes part in the morning skate at Prudential Center on January 7, 2017 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Edmonton Oilers are off to a less-than-ideal start to the season. After last night’s loss, the Edmonton Oilers are sitting with a record of 1-3-1 through 5 games. This team came into the season as Stanley Cup favourites by many experts, so this start is surprising for most.

Now I still don’t quite think it is time to pull any emergency door handles it anything like that, but we are 2-3 more losses from doing that. The question is what can the Edmonton Oilers do to try and change the way their season is going?

So far this season Woodcroft has tried switching up the lines and lineup. After the first couple of losses, he put Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid on the same line in hopes of bringing the team a win. It worked the first game he did it, but after that, they haven’t been able to win again.

What else is there for Jay or the Edmonton Oilers to do aside from that? In my opinion, there are 2 large-scale drastic changes that they can do that will hopefully wake up this team.

The Edmonton Oilers Make A Trade

A trade is always a move that the GM can so to try and spark his team. Most teams are really close with their teammates and do not want them to be traded. I imagine it would feel a lot like one of your friends in school moving away. You personally have no control over it, but it sucks to see your friend leave.

A trade could be just what the Edmonton Oilers need to have an early season reboot. I am not talking about trading away one of the top forwards or top defenseman, but a middle-of-the-line player.

This type of trade won’t make your team better on paper, it usually is just a trade to make a trade scenario. If you trade away a middle 6 forward you would get a middle 6 forward back.

Now if Ken Holland really wanted to mix things up he would look for a larger scale trade. The problem with that is those trades are really hard to make this early in the season. This is cause every team can still make the playoffs. Unless a team is struggling like the Oilers I don’t see that scale of trade happening.

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