Jordan Eberle: Expectations and The Status Quo

Over the weekend, TSN’s Darren Dreger gave us an interesting tidbit of information regarding Jordan Eberle and his future with the Edmonton Oilers. The insider informed us that the Oilers have “a number of offers on the table for Jordan Eberle” and “it sounds like he’ll definitely get traded.”

Those two quotes are quite straight forward and tell us two things: 1.) teams are interested in Eberle and 2.) the Oilers are inclined to move on from him and seemingly would prefer to.

Eberle’s contract runs for two more seasons and has a $6 million AAV which will make him hard to trade.

The Offers:

Big moves like this (yes, this is a big move) almost never happen during the Stanley Cup Final. That said, the Oilers clearly don’t have an offer to their liking on the table for Jordan Eberle at this time. Will that change? I think it will, mainly because Eberle provides an established level of offense at the NHL level and even in a down year still tallied 20 goals for the Oilers.

Names like Travis Hamonic and Matt Duchene were also mentioned in that same Dreger piece of video that is linked above, and those two players could be of interest to the Oilers. I maintain that an Eberle for Hamonic deal between the Oilers and Islanders is the best fit for the Oil and it makes sense from New York’s standpoint too.

Will the Islanders pull the trigger on that deal? Value wise I think they are losing on this one, but Eberle fits their need for a scoring winger and I’d imagine that’s a move that makes John Tavares a very happy man.

Offer wise, I think Oiler fans might want to temper expectations. If the club is telegraphing that they aren’t happy with the offers then we have no reason to doubt that. They are likely drumming up more interest here and hoping to turn the heat up on teams hoping for a better offer.

In the event that doesn’t work, however, the Oilers have a decision to make.

The Status Quo:

I know the popular thing right now is to run Jordan Eberle out of town, but I’d hold off on that for a just a second here. Does trading Eberle make sense? Yes, in a way it absolutely does. He’s making $6 million per season and is overpaid on that contract, plus he could bring back a defender or a center who can help the team at a cheaper cap hit.

All that being said, while trading Eberle makes sense, dumping him simply does not. Eberle had a down year in 2016-17, but he still managed to post boxcars of 20-31-51. That’s a strong number for a lot of players and quite frankly I’ll take it from Eberle. 51 points is nothing to scoff at.

Prior to this year’s struggles, Eberle posted 25-22-47 in 69 games in 2015-16, 24-39-63 in 81 games in 2014-15 and 65 points during the 2013-14 campaign. The three years prior to this past one, Eberle is roughly at 60 points per 82 games played. That’s a quality top-six forward in today’s NHL.

Yes, Eberle struggled mightily (0-2-2 in 13 games) in the playoffs this past season, but that was a small sample size and I don’t believe that he should be judged exclusively on that. There’s a long list of very good players who struggled during their first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that’s a fact.

Let’s not pretend that Jordan Eberle is a useless player who needs to go for Edmonton to have success. He’s usually a 60 point forward and that has exceptional value in today’s game. I’d also argue that he’s Edmonton’s most dangerous forward outside of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Dreger: “I’m told that there are offers on the table for Jordan Eberle.” Nothing Chiarelli is willing to accept just yet. #Oilers

— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) June 2, 2017

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In Closing:

When Darren Dreger says that “it sounds like he’ll definitely get traded” regarding Eberle, I take that as Edmonton has moved on and plans to deal the forward this off-season. When the line about offers is mentioned and “nothing Peter Chiarelli is willing to accept just yet” follows it up, it gives me pause.

Peter Chiarelli has caught a lot of flak since arriving in Edmonton, but I don’t believe he’ll trade Jordan Eberle just to deal him. His verbal suggests that he is just fine bringing the forward back in September, and I’m on board with that notion.

If the offers improve and Edmonton can get a legit long-term solution on the blueline (think Hamonic), then I would be more than fine with moving Eberle. But, unless the offers improve, I wouldn’t move Eberle just for the sake of it. Luckily Peter Chiarelli thinks the same way.