4 Edmonton Oilers players who could get traded at the deadline
The NHL trade deadline is less than two months away, and the Edmonton Oilers should be a busy team.
As a contender and two-time Stanley Cup runner-up, the pressure is on for the Oilers to finally get over the hump. This year’s team has had its moments, but it should be clear to GM Stan Bowman that there is still plenty of room for improvement.
The goaltending seems to be sorted for the time being, with Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram forming a formidable pair, yet other areas of the roster are lacking. Depth scoring has dried up this season, and the defensive group could use a boost. Those two areas should be the focus as the deadline approaches.
As per usual, making a move won’t be easy for the cap-strapped Oilers, meaning they will most likely have to trade roster players to make it happen. Who could find their way off the team over the next couple of weeks? Here are four candidates…
1. Andrew Mangiapane
Perry Nelson/Imagn Images
2025-26 stats: 6 G, 6 A, 12 PTS, 45 GP
Cap hit: $3.6 million (UFA-2027)
It’s not a matter of if the Oilers trade Andrew Mangiapane, but when.
Trade rumours have been circling Mangiapane for about a month now, and it feels like a move is inevitable. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has mentioned that both sides feel a change of scenery would be beneficial and that Edmonton should have a market to trade him.
Things just haven’t worked out for Mangiapane in the Alberta capital. He was supposed to be a middle-six scoring threat that had 20-goal potential. Instead, he’s been a ghost in most of the games he’s played in and has been a regular healthy scratch of late.
2. Calvin Pickard
Kim Klement Neitzel/Imagn Images
2025-26 stats:Ā 5-6-2, .871 SV%, -3.5 GSAx
Cap hit: $1 million (UFA-2026)
Every good thing must come to an end.
Calvin Pickard has had a great run with the Oilers over the past two seasons, but it feels like it’s reaching an end now. The journeyman goaltender made headlines in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, bailing out Edmonton at multiple turns, but that play has not continued into the new season.
Pickard is among the worst statistical goalies in the NHL this year and has been thoroughly outplayed by both Jarry and Ingram. He’s already made it known how much he doesn’t like being a third-string. A trade could be the best-case scenario for both Pickard and the Oilers.
It’s a thin goalie market this season, meaning a team looking to change things up between the pipes could be interested.
3. Adam Henrique
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images
2025-26 stats: 2 G, 8 A, 10 PTS, 43 GP
Cap hit: $3 million (UFA-2026)
There may not be a spot for Adam Henrique on this Oilers club.
The veteran centreman was the Oilers’ prize of the 2024 NHL trade deadline, but age seems to have caught up to the 35-year-old Henrique. He was supposed to be Edmonton’s third-line centre coming into the season, a spot that the Oilers are reportedly scouring the trade market for a replacement.
Henrique’s scoring has taken a massive hit, and the play of Curtis Lazar as the fourth-line centre doesn’t help his case. He’s in the last year of his contract and could be a prime cap-dump to help the Oilers make a bigger move.
4. Trent Frederic
Stephen R. Sylvanie/Imagn Images
2025-26 stats: 2 G, 1 A, 3 PTS, 49 GP
Cap hit: $3.85 million (UFA-2033)
Out of all the players on this list, Trent Frederic would be the hardest player to part ways with.
The Oilers are desperate for Frederic to pan out. He’s in the first year of a massive eight-year deal signed last summer, and it’s clear that Edmonton has built the 27-year-old into its long-term plans.
Nobody expected things to go off the rails so quickly, as Frederic has not been anywhere near the player that the Oilers expected. He’s on pace for a career-worst five points this season and hasn’t brought the physical edge that everyone was expecting.
Bowman may opt to see if he can get out of this commitment, but considering the length of the contract, that will be hard to do. Still, stranger things have happened in the NHL.