Oilers make two trades in response to offer sheets

One trade was made late last night, the other just came down the pike today.

Trade #1 - Oilers trade Ottawa's 2025 fourth round pick to Vancouver in exchange for Russian dual side winger Vasily Podkolzin

That fourth round pick, if you'll remember, was originally acquired by the Oilers in the Roby Jarventie trade when they traded Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson to Ottawa in exchange for the more NHL ready Jarventie.

It's now been flipped to the Canucks in this trade.

Podkolzin was originally drafted by the Canucks in the 2019 NHL entry draft 10th overall. His boxcars in the KHL were not all that impressive, so what the Canucks scouting staff saw in this guy to take him 10th overall I'll never know - this is the kind of guy you roll the dice on in the fourth or fifth round, not the first. Podkolzin was taken two picks after the Oilers took Philip Broberg at eighth overall.

Unsurprisingly, Podkolzin hasn't really lived up to his draft position as he's spent his entire career up to now being shuttled back and forth between the minors and the Canucks. He's best described as a reclamation project that's getting a fresh start with a change of scenery. His high water mark was his rookie season when he went 14-12-26 in 79 games. Slightly inferior to Holloway in terms of a prospect but he's only costing the Oilers $2,000,000 against the cap for the next two seasons, something Holloway can't say as if the Oilers do end up matching the offer sheet then Holloway would cost the Oilers more than double that against the cap.

If you read the tea leaves this means that the Oilers likely aren't going to match Holloway's offer sheet and he's gone. Podkolzin seems to be his replacement in the lineup. The best you can say about him is he's injecting some skills into the bottom six forward group at this point. Somehow I doubt he'll have a shot at the top six forward group anytime soon, but never say never. Only time will tell whether this trade works out for the Oilers or not. He'll certainly have a better team around him in Edmonton than in Vancouver. Sometimes the change of scenery works, sometimes it doesn't. It's a low risk gamble that remains to be seen if it works or not.

Trade #2 - Oilers trade Cody Ceci and their own 2025 third round pick to San Jose in exchange for right defenceman Ty Emberson

We all knew that Cody Ceci would be traded, it was just a matter of when. Although he did well in a limited one game stretch in game seven of the finals last season, it was too belated to save his time as an Oiler. As soon as he lost his chemistry with Darnell Nurse we all knew he would be the one who would be gone as a cap casualty as he was the most logical choice.

In San Jose Ceci is slated to once again become a top pairing defenceman, pairing with Mario Ferraro, who set a new career high with three goals and 21 points for the Sharks last year, albeit with a ghastly -38 which we can likely chalk up to San Jose being a terrible team. I don't understand why the Oilers had to throw in a third round pick considering Ceci is a right shot guy but I'm assuming the trade market for him was softer than we all expected.

The player we get in exchange is a young 24 year old right shot D in Ty Emberson. A third round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2018, he played almost half the season for the Sharks last year, putting up 1-9-10 in 30 games with a -4, not bad numbers for a rookie playing on a rebuilding team.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch likely was the biggest reason why the Oilers traded for Emberson, as Emberson played for the Hartford Wolf Pack two seasons ago when Knoblauch was coaching there, a year when he put up 7-20-27 in 69 (giggity) games for the Wolf Pack, the farm team of the New York Rangers.

It's less clear whether this means the Oilers aren't going to match Broberg's offer sheet, as I don't see Emberson as a straight up replacement for Broberg. The most likely explanation is that Emberson is likely going to compete in training camp with Troy Stetcher and Josh Brown to see who will play on the right side next to Darnell Nurse on the second pairing, who will play on the right side next to Brett Kulak on the third pairing, and who will be the extra guy. If I had to guess, as the most skilled and experienced one of the three, Stetcher has the inside track at second pairing right D.

All of this is, of course, assuming that Philip Broberg's offer sheet won't be matched, which we won't know officially until tomorrow. If the Oilers do match on Broberg? Emberson will probably start the year in Bakersfield and likely play the role of the first callup in case of injury or poor play. Stetcher, however, is capable of playing in the top four as he was playing on the second pairing for the Coyotes prior to the Oilers trading for him at last season's trade deadline.

Emberson is signed for only $950,000 for this season against the cap, at which time unless he spends a full season in the NHL he'll be a Group 6 free agent. If he does play in the NHL for at least 50 games he'll be a full unrestricted free agent and cost even more on his next contract, although not much more all things considering.

It's worth noting that after the dust has settled on these two trades, the Oilers only have three draft picks in the 2025 NHL entry draft - a fourth, a sixth, and a seventh rounder - although they could potentially have a second and a third rounder back if they don't match on Holloway and Broberg tomorrow. All of these picks at this point in time are their own picks, with likely at least one of St. Louis's coming back to us tomorrow.

As always, only time will tell what happens here.

You can read even more about the trades here.