Reading the tea leaves, it appears that the Edmonton Oilers are heavily pursuing a young forward with many reports pointing towards a right-handed centre.
Leading up to the 2026-27 NHL season, insider Elliottte Friedman revealed in his 32 Thoughts column that the Oilers had shown interest in an intriguing target; Seattle Kraken centre, Shane Wright over the summer. This came shortly after reporting from another NHL insider and Sportsnet colleague, Frank Seravalli that linked the Oilers to a different centre, this one from the Montreal Canadiens, Kirby Dach.
These conversations have not went away with Friedman further reporting on the Oilers trade talks. He reported on his 'Saturday Headlines' segment on Saturday Night Hockey (formerly, Hockey Night in Canada) that the club was pursuing a lateral move to trade a defenceman for a forward. In this scenario, the Oilers would be trading from a position of strength to address an area of need.
Although not a verified insider, Oilers fan on X (formerly Twitter) @Klimaslid dropped some more information surrounding the Oilers trade talks.
Late night Oilers tweet:
— Klima's Lid (@klimaslid) October 6, 2026
- Kirby Dach is and has been the main target for weeks.
- Edmonton has talked to Boston about Poitras as a secondary option.
- Boston wants a RHD but the offer is a LHD (Emberson/Stastney)
- Believed that something happens before Wednesday.
Klima's Lid reports that Dach is/was the main target by Oilers' general manager Stan Bowman and his staff but they have also pursued Boston Bruins centre, Matthew Poitras. He also reports that there have been discussions surrounding one of the Oilers depth defenceman, naming Ty Emberson and Spencer Stastney with the Bruins' preference for a 'right-handed defenceman' believed to be Emberson. He also said that it is believed that something will happen before Wednesday, which has not yet happened.
Oilers have a lot to offer
As the saying goes; "Where there is smoke, there is fire" appears to be true. The overarching theme of the reported Oilers trade talks is that the club is pursuing adding a centre, one that seems to be right-handed is the preference. Also, the club looks to use their glut of young depth defencemen to try and add an undervalued player.
The Oilers currently have a number of depth defencemen who are more than capable of playing NHL minutes, either in the press box or down in the minors. Defencemen like the aforementioned Stastney and Emberson along with Shakir Mukhamadullin have all found themselves as designated healthy scratches at points.
The potential trade also makes sense given the Oilers have been decimated up front with injuries piling, one after another. The team is currently without many regular forwards including; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Jason Dickinson, Matt Savoie, and Mattias Janmark. They are all sidelined due to injuries with various timelines from the next week or so, to months.
As it stands right now, there is no legitimate reporting that suggests that a trade is imminent but it seems like Dach and Poitras are the main targets at this point. If Wright does become available, he would be a welcomed player given his pedigree as a former exceptional status player and as a fourth overall pick. As well, he appears to be the most consistently established of the group so far.
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