Oilers reportedly considering another former player to shore up RHD position

There has been plenty of talk of late, about what the Edmonton Oilers are going to do to improve their blue line. This is what's necessary, when you trade away Cody Ceci and don't match the offer sheet for Philip Broberg from the St. Louis Blues.

There have been several options suggested including, as per TSN's Dustin Nielson, a reunion with Tyson Barrie courtesy of a PTO. Another reunion mentioned which we wrote about, was the potential to trade for Adam Larsson at some point.

Along these lines, let's keep on this theme of the Oilers possibly bringing back defencemen who previously suited up in Edmonton. And this one has come via a reputable source, namely Frank Seravalli.

Another Kraken connection

The Daily Faceoff hockey insider is reporting that the Oilers are perusing the market for right-shot D-man. One of their targets/considerations is apparently Justin Schultz, who played for the Oilers from 2012, until he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in early 2016.

Schultz is currently a free agent, after spending the past two seasons in Seattle with the Kraken. Consider that his time there included a 2022-23 campaign, where his 27 assists, 34 total points and +4 rating were all the second-best of his 12 seasons in the NHL.

To further the point that the 34-year-old is still capable of doing a decent job, consider that his 57.9 Corsi For % in All Situations this past season, was the best of his NHL career. Whilst we appreciate that statistics can often be manipulated to support any argument, this still seems worthy of mentioning.

Schultz more of an offensive asset

In general, while Schultz isn't exactly a shutdown defenceman, he's still done a decent enough job to 'survive' as long as he has in the NHL. Regardless, his strength is as an offensive blue liner thanks to his excellent puck-handling and mobility, as evidenced by 324 points in 745 career regular season games.

It's also worth noting that the 2008 second round draft pick knows what it takes to claim the Holy Grail of hockey. After being traded to the Penguins by the Oilers, he went on to win the Stanley Cup both that season and the next.

In respect of potential financial compensation, Schultz was paid $3 million in each of these past two seasons with the Kraken. Given that he's still a free agent combined with his age, it stands to reason that he would cost less for the Oilers to sign.

In this respect, AFP Analytics do project the Kelowna, British Columbia native to sign a two-year deal with an average annual value of just over $2.4 million. Although we believe the Oilers could get him for even less, if so inclined.

And really, that's the point of all this - while the Oilers may well be considering Schultz, it doesn't mean it will actually come to anything. If it does, he would probably be better-suited to be part of the third pairing, while also providing invaluable veteran leadership to the team.

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