This year's trade deadline has come and gone, and for the Oilers there was nothing done on trade deadline day; all their trades were done prior to Mar. 7. The Oilers only made two trades, one of which was major-ish while the other one was more knibbling around the edges of the roster.
Let's start with the first one that took place three days before the deadline, on Mar. 4. It was a three-way trade involving the Oilers, Devils, and Bruins.
To Edmonton:
C Trent Frederic - final cap hit $575,000
LW Max Jones
Prospect RW Petr Hauser
The aim of this trade was to make the Oilers tougher for the playoffs, as they acquired a physical center in Trent Frederic, who it seems once he comes back from injury will be slated to be the fourth line center, or so it seems. Even now, two weeks after he is no longer on their roster Frederic sits third on the Bruins in hits with 155, and the Bruins look headed towards a rebuild since they're slated to finish amongst the worst teams in the Atlantic division. Originally having a $2.3 million cap hit, the Bruins retained 50 percent of his cap hit which expires after this season.
Max Jones is a fourth line winger who is a throw-in in the trade. He was fairly vanilla for the Bruins this season, spending most of it on their farm team in Providence. However, he did play seven games for the Bruins, a game in which he put up no offense and wasn't particularly noteworthy in terms of hits or blocked shots. He has dialled it up a notch since the trade for the Oilers, as he also has a reputation as a tough customer who looks slated to get a pretty regular shift on the fourth line for the Oilers, which he seemingly didn't get in Boston.
Jones has only played six games for the Oilers, but he already has an assist and in a short sample size leads the Oilers in hits/60 with 17.14. For the record, this is even higher than leading hitter Vasily Podkolzin, who has a hits/60 number of 11.35. The Oilers' fourth line has pretty much been in flux all season, so it appears Frederic and Jones will be counted on to stabilize it and bring some toughness and grit to said line as well as consistency, all ingredients the Oilers have been missing all year.
It's assumed that once Evander Kane comes back from injury, that the Oilers should now no longer be lacking in tough players. Between Frederic, Jones, Kane, Vasily Podkolzin, and Darnell Nurse, the Oilers should well stocked in toughness, especially when you factor in the elevation of those skills amongst the rest of the team.
Petr Hauser is an unsigned prospect whose rights were traded to the Oilers after he was drafted in the fifth round by the Devils in 2022. The reasons why he was a throw-in should be obvious when you take a look at his unimpressive numbers in the Czech pro leagues. But, who knows? Never say never.