Oilers have serious interest in Flames defenceman Chris Tanev: report

The Edmonton Oilers are looking to upgrade their blue line for the playoffs and are believed to have their eye on a Calgary Flames defenceman.

It was reported over a week ago that the Oilers were looking to inquire about Tanev to the Flames, and based on some new reporting, that still appears to be the case. Yesterday, CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal appeared on Sportsnet 650’s Halford & Brough show, where he discussed the Oilers’ interest.

“Sources say the Oilers are making a push for Tanev,” Dhaliwal said. “You certainly don’t want him going to that team if you’re the [Vancouver] Canucks, for sure.”

As things stand right now, the Oilers right side consists of Evan Bouchard, Cody Ceci, and Vincent Desharnais. Ideally, adding Tanev would push Ceci down to the third pairing while moving Desharnais into the seventh position. The Oilers have less than $2 million in cap space, meaning they may have to move money out to bring Tanev in. That could result in a player like Ceci heading the other way.

Tanev, who played the first ten seasons of his career with the Canucks before joining the Flames ahead of the 2020-21 campaign as a free agent, is one of the better shutdown defencemen in the NHL. He can line up against the opposing team’s top stars at even strength and is phenomenal on the penalty kill. He would provide a massive upgrade to the Oilers’ back end if they could work out a trade.

Tanev is one of several Flames players who could be moved between now and the March 8 trade deadline. He and Noah Hanifin, who are pending UFAs, are expected to be moved. There is also plenty of talk surrounding Jacob Markstrom, who has two additional seasons on his contract with a cap hit of $6 million.

Whether or not the Flames choose to make a deal with their bitter rival remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the next few weeks will be extremely busy for general manager Craig Conroy.

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