4 areas Edmonton Oilers could address with next trade deadline deal
The Edmonton Oilers have entered the trade deadline with their first big deal, but there is still plenty of work left to do.
Acquiring Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins was a tidy bit of work by GM Stan Bowman this morning. If he is healthy — something that is in doubt right now — he will provide an extra bit of snarl and physicality into the team’s top nine.
This will help solve the team’s apparent lack of physicality that has plagued them over their most recent losing streak, but there are still a few more concerning holes on the roster that must be addressed.
Here are four more areas that Bowman should focus on in his next trade before the deadline hits this Friday.
Goalie help
One of the most obvious things to creep up on the latest Oilers road trip was the team’s need for some stable goaltending.
The overall play of the team wasn’t helping, but it became clear that the Oilers were not getting much help from Stuart Skinner between the pipes. It’s frustrating because Edmonton has seen Skinner be a very good goalie in this league; he just lacks the consistency you would want from a starting goalie on a cup-contending team.
Don’t be mistaken; Skinner is still the guy in Edmonton, but he could use some help. Calvin Pickard has been great in a pinch, but he isn’t the type of guy you would trust between the pipes for long stretches, especially in the playoffs.
The goalie market is thin, but a guy like John Gibson could help solidify things for good in the Oilers’ crease.
Scoring winger
It seems improbable, but the high-flying Oilers have a scoring problem this season, particularly on the wings.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are still finding ways to score, but their supporting cast has struggled. Zach Hyman has regressed back down from his 50-goal campaign last season, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is starting to look increasingly invisible on a shift-by-shift basis.
The two guys brought in to fix that this summer, Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner, are also struggling to find the scoresheet. Vasily Podkolzin has been getting consistent top-six times with Draisaitl, but it hasn’t unlocked any offence.
McDavid and Draisaitl can’t do it all, and they desperately need their linemates to start pulling on the same rope. A guy like Alex Tuch out of Buffalo would be a perfect candidate to remedy this, although the price may be too much. Maybe a cheaper option could be Rickard Rakell from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but his contract may be an issue.
Second pair defenceman
From the onset of the season, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Oilers would be trading for a second-pair defenceman. Just days before the deadline and they still haven’t.
Bowman did attempt to fix the hole on the blueline by signing John Klingberg, but the results of that so far are pretty mixed. It feels unlikely that Klingberg will be able to play top-four minutes reliably, and the fit beside Darnell Nurse doesn’t feel great.
Brett Kulak has been able to pinch-hit in that spot this season with some pretty good results, but adding somebody along the lines of Jamie Oleksiak from the Seattle Kraken or maybe Brandon Carlo from the Bruins would be solid.
Fourth line centre
As is tradition with the Oilers, they will need to make their annual trade for a fourth-line centre.
Last season was Sam Carrick, in 2023 it was Nick Bjugstad, and Derrick Brassard had the honours in 2022. With the team opting to send Derek Ryan to the AHL and the jury still out on Noah Philp, they will need to find somebody to take over that spot eventually. Kasperi Kapanen was most recently playing in that role during Monday’s practice, and we’ve seen guys like Mattias Janmark take over as well.
Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans would have been a nice pickup before he re-signed. Other potential targets include New York Islanders centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Seattle Kraken centre Yanni Gourde.