Edmonton Oilers have trade interest in Ryan Donato: report
The NHL trade deadline is now less than a month away and a new target can be added to the Edmonton Oilers’ list.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman is expected to be a busy man in the moments before the deadline as he tries to give his team the best chance possible at winning the Stanley Cup. A trade or two is almost a given at this point for Edmonton, but who they will get is not clear.
There have been murmurs that the team will be giving John Klingberg every opportunity to be a top-four defenceman, which means that Bowman could shift his attention to improving the forward group. The Oilers could use a bit of a scoring boost in the top nine, and a recent report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman may have identified a target to fill that need.
It appears the Oilers have some trade interest in Chicago Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato.
“I think a few of the Canadian teams are looking around on him, I think Edmonton is one of them,” Friedman reported.
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Donato has been fantastic with a terrible Blackhawks team this year as he leads the team with 19 goals and is third in points with 37 behind only Teuvo Teravainen and Conor Bedard. He would be tied with Zach Hyman for third on the Oilers in goals and third in points behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
He is also a very cheap option as Donato only carries a cap hit of $2 million and is slated to become a UFA at the end of the season. He is the prototypical rental player and one that the Oilers would probably be able to take without any salary retention needed.
Donato has been getting lots of opportunities with the Blackhawks and is currently playing on the team’s top line next to Bedard, but there is reason to believe that he could also get similar playing time if he was traded to the Oilers.
Edmonton has not been getting enough offence out of either one of Viktor Arvidsson or Vasily Podkolzin on the second line with Draisaitl, leaving a space for Donato to potentially fill. The 28-year-old Chicago forward is a natural centre but that hasn’t stopped the Oilers from playing centres on the wing before and he is currently doing it in Chicago.
Perhaps he could provide Draisaitl a more productive finisher on that line and allow Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch to move one of Arvidsson or Podkolzin down to the third line to bolster depth.
As for what a trade could potentially look like, a rebuilding team like the Blackhawks would probably have their eyes on a package of draft picks and prospects. Perhaps the Oilers could dangle the St. Louis Blues’ second and third-round compensation picks as part of a deal.
It’s an interesting possibility and one that makes sense from an Oilers perspective.