Buyer beware: 7 players the Oilers should avoid trading for
The NHL trade deadline is just over a week away and the Edmonton Oilers are poised to be back in the buyer’s market again.
There are a few areas that the team could be looking to improve upon. Much has been reported on the team’s desire to improve the top end of both their offensive and defensive groups, but recent chatter has the Oilers connected to a levy of depth options.
While you can’t go wrong with some of the higher-end targets, once you move down the lineup the buyer’s market is ripe with players that should be avoided.
When it comes to this list of seven players, Oilers GM Ken Holland would probably be better off steering clear of trade conversations altogether.
Joel Edmundson
Joel Edmundson has been linked to the Oilers for two seasons now. The veteran defenceman does not have great on-ice results.
At 30, Edmundson isn’t going to blow you away offensively (just five points in 42 games this season) and is underwhelming defensively. According to Natural Stat Trick (NST), he holds an xGF% of 46.9 and has been outscored 28-24 at five-on-five. All the while holding a cap hit of $3.5 million.
Both Brett Kulak and Vincent Desharnais are better options as bottom-pairing guys. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the team would be better served with Philip Broberg as their seventh defenseman.
David Savard
Take everything that was just said about Edmundson and apply that to David Savard, but sprinkle in some worse underlying analytics.
Savard is not the defenceman he was in his prime and the decline has been steep in recent years. NST has him dead-last among Canadiens defencemen with 43.41 xGF% and has been outscored 35-26 while on the ice.
He also carries an expensive $3.5 million cap hit through next season. Not worth the cap headache and not worth the assets it would take to trade for him.
Matt Dumba
In his Minnesota Wild days, Matt Dumba was a pretty good player, but those days have passed.
Though he is still a useful player for the Arizona Coyotes, he probably isn’t what the Oilers are looking for. He has always been a more offensive guy, which has been a detriment to his defensive results. Unfortunately, both of those areas are now a struggle for him in the desert.
He has just nine points in 52 games and his defensive analytics have been middling at best. On top of that, he’s the most expensive player on this list with a $3.9 million cap hit.
Ilya Lyubushkin
Rinse. Repeat. Ilya Lyubushkin is another player who just doesn’t move the needle for the Oilers’ defensive group.
He has had a very mediocre season with the Anaheim Ducks, scoring just four points in 52 contests. On the defensive side of the ice, it’s the same story, with NST reporting a dismal 42.3 xGF% all the while getting outscored 38-23 on the ice.
He’s also making $2.75 million and, while the Ducks could retain salary, it’s hard to see why the Oilers would want someone with such poor results. There are better in-house options for the team.
Luke Kunin
The Oilers need forward depth scoring, and they won’t find it with Luke Kunin of the San Jose Sharks.
Though he has a good draft pedigree, being a former first-round pick in 2016, Kunin has failed to live up to those expectations. He is on his third NHL team and has a measly 10 points in 52 games this season. Kunin does lead the Sharks in PK TOI, but he hasn’t had a ton of success there either, plus the Oilers are already flush with PK specialists.
Bringing in Kunin would fill a role that the Oilers already have filled: the PK specialist who doesn’t produce at even strength. No sense in spending assets for a player you already have in Derek Ryan, Connor Brown, and Mattias Janmark.
Kunin would be more expensive than all those options as well, as he comes with a $2.75 million cap hit.
Beck Malenstyn
While a little intriguing, forward Beck Malenstyn of the Capitals doesn’t tick a lot of boxes for the Oilers.
The 26-year-old is playing in his first full NHL season with Washington this year and has okay offensive numbers, scoring six goals and 16 points in 57 games. However, he lacks that play-driving quality that the Oilers desperately need in their bottom six.
Like Kunin, Malenstyn leads his team in PK TOI but, again, the Oilers aren’t in the market for a player whose primary attractive quality is that he kills penalties. At five-on-five, NST has Malenstyn at a putrid 39.51 xGF% and is consistently out-chanced by opponents.
Sam Carrick
If fighting was still an important part of today’s game, Sam Carrick would be a good addition. Unfortunately, it’s not.
The 32-year-old Anaheim Ducks forward has bounced between the AHL and NHL throughout his career but has found a niche on a bad team this season. Again, the offensive production isn’t encouraging with just 11 points, and the five-on-five underlying analytics also aren’t doing much for him.
He does, however, have seven fights this season and, you guessed it, leads a mediocre penalty kill in TOI.