Block Buster Trade with the Flyers?

So amidst all the wild and crazy discussion today there came a crazy rumor from a fellow named Rich Smith (@allsportsINTEL on twitter) posted the following tweets

BREAKING NHL UPDATE – Source – Flyers and Oilers discussing blockbuster deal that would send Nail Yakupov and Hemsky to Flyers.

— Rich Smith (@ALLsportsINTEL) October 14, 2013

And

Names being discussed as players of interest for Oilers from Flyers Simmonds, Couturier, Laughton, Cousins and Coburn.

— Rich Smith (@ALLsportsINTEL) October 14, 2013

Well did that ever set the world on fire, people were for a trade, against a trade. Virtual fist fights broke out on social media. Again all hell broke loose. I have no idea who this Rich Smith character is, I don’t know if he has any real sources or if he was just talking out of his ass like most rumor accounts out there on twitter. What I do know is that there may be something to an Oilers trade with the Flyers.

Since the draft we all know that Craig MacTavish has been trying to make a trade with his counterpart in Philly and by all accounts they were very close to a move when it fell through at the last minute. Most of the leg work on said blockbuster may already be complete. The sides might be back at the table, there might actually be something in the works.

I got in a conversation with a well respected Oilers blogger today about certain possibilities involving a trade with the Flyers, and after much back and forth we were both resolved the fact that trading Nail Yakupov might not be beneficial to the Oilers, as we think he’ll be a 50 goal scorer someday, we also agreed that there is a trade out there that would make the Oilers a competitive team for the next decade.

Here’s what we came up with

The Edmonton Oilers Trade

Nail Yakupov, Ales Hemsky, Nick Schultz and a second round pick

To the Philadelphia Flyers for

Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier, and Braydon Coburn

BOOM….THAT’S A BOLD MOVE CRAIG MACTAVISH!

So here’s a few things, there is no goalie involved in this deal. Philly doesn’t have a goalie that would be an upgrade over Dubnyk or Labarberra, and I know a lot of you are going to complain about that, but it is what it is, Coburn improves the defense right now and the top nine forwards would look pretty sick too.

Hall – Nugent-Hopkin – Eberle

Perron – Couturier – Simmonds

Joensuu – Gordon – Gagner

That’s a pretty dangerous looking top nine right there, a team that would be full of battle, not be afraid to go in to the corners. Other teams would be looking over their shoulders for sure with that group.

What about the defense you ask?

Ference – Schultz

Petry – Coburn

Smid – Belov/Grebeshkov/Larsen/kitchen sink.

That’s a solid top five defensemen right there. You can rotate whoever is playing well into the six spot and be no worse for wear. Add Darnell Nurse into the mix next year and that becomes a very scary defense for opposing teams.

There are more reasons that this trade would work out for both teams. The Flyers are up against the cap and while making this deal will only shed $25,000 this season, both Hemsky and Schultz are UFA’s after this year, a savings of $8.5 million next year. For the Oilers what it does is prevent the team from having to re-up Yakupov after next season, in fact depending on how MacT manages signings in the next few years, there won’t be a big ticket signing due for a few seasons and it may free the team up to make a big jump into the free agent market.

So how likely is this deal? Well I’d have to say it’s probably way less than 50%, but that doesn’t mean it’ not fun to talk about. It also doesn’t improve the goaltending situation but I’m of the impression that if the defence, which has been terrible, can be improved significantly then Dubnyk won’t be a problem. Let’s face it both goalies have been left high and dry way to many times they year.

Who Knows?

Thanks for Reading

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