3 reasons Jake Guentzel would be an outstanding addition for the Oilers
Since their 16-game winning streak, the Edmonton Oilers have lost more games than they won, signifying they shouldn’t be finished building their team just yet.
Per The Fourth Period, the Edmonton Oilers could be linked to arguably the hottest trade piece of the 2024 trade deadline season, Jake Guentzel. Guentzel, who remains on injured reserve, should return around the March 8th deadline, so expect a lot of contenders to try and pull off a blockbuster deal for one of the Pittsburgh Penguins star players.
It won’t be easy for the Oilers to find a way to get Guentzel into their lineup considering current cap restraints, but by adding a player like Cody Ceci into either a deal for Guentzel or in a separate trade, Edmonton could free enough cap space to fit him onto the team now, then work toward an extension following the season.
At age 29, he also has quite a few good seasons of hockey left. And to potentially put Guentzel onto the ice long-term with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton would have three star players to continually build around for at least the foreseeable future, so that alone makes him worth pursuing.
The Oilers must compete to land Jake Guentzel at the 2024 trade deadline
If the Penguins field serious offers for Guentzel, expect the Oilers to face plenty of competition should they join the sweepstakes. There are quite a few teams out there who would be good fits for the 29-year-old, and Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas will demand a lot of compensation for arguably his best player not named Sidney Crosby.
The Oilers have most of their pieces in place to make multiple runs to the Western Conference Championship, something that first occurred this decade in 2022. But it’s also clear that one more star-caliber player will put them over the top, and it’s just one of three reasons why Guentzel would be so valuable to Edmonton for the rest of 2024 and perhaps throughout the decade.
Jake Guentzel would add more firepower to a remarkable Oilers offense
You could put Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl onto a rebuilding hockey team, and they would transform that organization within weeks, if not sooner. Put them onto a good team like the Oilers, and watch Edmonton perennially contend for the playoffs. Now add someone like Jake Guentzel, who would force opponents to keep up with a high-powered scoring attack on an almost nightly basis.
While Guentzel’s 52 points pale compared to McDavid’s 89 and Draisaitl’s 71, plus the fact he would currently rank fifth on the team in points at the moment, it’s also important to remember he’s also playing for a Penguins team that hasn’t fared well offensively lately, sans their 7-6 win over the Philadelphia Flyers this past weekend.
Just as with the example we used above with McDavid and Draisaitl taking a low-scoring team and immediately making their play in the offensive zone more relevant, Guentzel has done that with the Penguins, scoring 22 goals to go with an 11.9 shooting percentage.
Now, put him onto a team like Edmonton, one that is currently eighth in scoring this season. He would complete a strong trio of scorers that also includes productive players like Evan Bouchard, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman.
Guentzel could provide some relief in the defensive zone
While Guentzel’s defensive game isn’t on par with players like Connor McDavid’s or even some of the better defensive forwards in the league, it’s still good enough to provide much-needed help in preventing pucks from invading the crease.
The Oilers have been a good team defensively, but we also know goaltender Stuart Skinner has not enjoyed a great season to date. He’s had some outstanding moments, mainly during Edmonton’s winning streak, but he’s again fallen back into obscurity with a 2-3-1 record and a paltry 0.858 save percentage since February 10th.
Skinner has only faced roughly 26.6 shots on goal per game this season, with 1,094 shots against across 41 contests, so it’s not like opponents are putting a ton of pressure on him. He also already has nine really bad starts, tying the number he had last season, but through 50 games.
Enter Jake Guentzel, who, despite logging just 36 hits and 21 takeaways this year, has shown in the past he can be a more aggressive player and one who can also use his stick to separate opponents from the puck 40-plus times per season. So, while Guentzel isn’t renowned throughout the league for his defensive play, he would bring enough to the table to at least help take a little more pressure off of Skinner.
The right trade would make Guentzel another long-term asset
Jake Guentzel will command a long-term deal that supersedes the AAV of $6 million that he had been making over the past five seasons, and his contract situation is one of a few reasons that may deter the Oilers from wanting to acquire him. We talked earlier about their lack of cap space and how trading someone like Cody Ceci could free things up in the short term, but the Oilers would also want to lock Guentzel in as a long-term asset if they traded for him.
It would make little sense to trade a player like Ceci and other assets to Pittsburgh only to bring in Guentzel for about 20 games, then let him walk in free agency. A better solution would be to think long-term regarding a potential trade, and that would involve an extension for McDavid at some point in his contract year of 2025-26 and one for Draisaitl and Bouchard next season.
However, the Oilers also have seven players slated to be unrestricted free agents, with at least two on seven-figure salaries. In a trade that involves Ceci, plus electing to let those free agents walk, Edmonton’s front office would find a way to make everything work, allowing them to strike deals with all the aforementioned players in this section, plus Guentzel.
It’s also worth noting that other key assets like Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zach Hyman are on long-term deals. Guentzel would be another epic piece of the puzzle should the Oilers make the right moves, setting the stage for a sensational latter half of the decade.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference as of February 25th)