Lightning About to Strike?

Recently there has been a handful of scouts attending Oilers games including those from the Detroit Red Wings, the Calgary Flames, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. I’m led to believe that they’re looking to pick up some pieces at the trade deadline that will bolster their playoff chances (Calgary) or their Stanley Cup odds (Detroit/Tampa).

I think we could all agree that Jeff Petry is one of the main targets. Detroit has long been rumored to be a destination for Petry but I am not at all surprised that perhaps the Flames and Lightning could be in on him too. One can’t imagine that any of those teams will be giving up roster players of any significance unless they’re getting one back. We’ll touch on that a bit later.

Detroit in all its defensive left-handed glory needs a right-handed dman. I’m surprised that Babcock has lasted this long as having opposite hands on the point was one of his mandates at the Olympics. Everyone has seen what the return could be from the Red Wings for Petry, a prospect and pick. Most named is Ryan Sproul who incidentally was Darnell Nurse’s teammate in Sault St.Marie before Sproul made the jump to the AHL.

I would prefer, as would most others, the Oilers get someone a bit further along in their development as oppose to a prospect and pick. You can forget about Riley Sheahan, Darren Helm, or either of the Tomas’ (Tatar and Jurco). Probably the Oilers best bet at a roster player is Joakim Andersson, a player that has been languishing on Detroit’s 4th line for most of the year. Can’t see Edmonton taking him on.

Let’s move on to Calgary.

I have had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Calgary could have some interest in a few Oilers at the deadline. Perhaps having Boyd Gordon, Matt Hendricks, or Petry on their wishlist. The pugnacity and truculence quotient is high on those three apart from Petry but even he has been showing a bit of snarl recently.

Edmonton won’t be getting anything of significance out of Calgary. Mid-round picks most likely but in the off chance Flames GM Brad Treliving says that he’ll ship a body out, I think Josh Jooris and Paul Byron have value from their roster. As for their prospects, I wonder about Mark Jankowski. A shocking first round pick in 2012, he’s been simmering in the NCAA for Providence for four years. At nearly a point-per-game pace (24gp 4g 16a) he’s not lighting it up per say but he’s trending up.

Last stop, Tampa Bay!

Lightning Uber GM Steve Yzerman has built a wonderful squad that looks nearly unstoppable. But their back-end could use some tinkering. Matt Carle is out for another 5 weeks or so, I can’t see Mattias Ohlund coming back, and Radko Gudas for another 3 months… They are desperate for veteran help on the blue.

Jeff Petry fits in where Matt Carle isn’t. A puck moving defender who has some pedigree on the PP. Perfect fit! But would Yzerman consider Stanley Cup winning veteran Andrew Ference as well? Grizzled vets are gold when it comes to playoff time plus Stevie Y owes us for saddling the team with Teddy Purcell.

Well as we mentioned before, roster players are pretty much off limits here. So MacT would have to dip into Tampa’s prospect pool and given the Lightning’s sensitive situation and depth at forward he should really go for players of quality.

Brayden Point comes to mind right away. The third round pick in 2014 is the kind of buzzsaw player that Edmonton’s system is in need of. Adding him to the likes of Greg Chase and Travis Ewanyk would make for a long night for whomever the opposing team is. If you watched the World Juniors, you seen a glimpse of what Point can provide to a team.

Anthony DeAngelo is another highly regarded player in the Tampa pipeline. A smooth skating offensive dman who specialty is putting up points. He’s playing alongside Darnell Nurse in SSM after being traded from Sarnia and is scoring at nearly 2 points-per-game for the Soo. Edmonton doesn’t have this kind of pure offensive defender in their system apart from Brad Hunt and honestly if Hunt didn’t have that clapper of his, would he even be playing in the AHL

Some other names I’d consider a win in Edmonton’s books if they acquired them would be Adam Erne, Vladimir Namestnikov, and Slater Koekkoek.

Now, I mentioned before of a team not wanting to move any roster players unless they are getting one of significance back. Let’s talk about that for a moment.

A few months ago on After Hours there was talk that Steve Yzerman had interest in Taylor Hall. I also recall hearing a caller on LoweTide’s show say something about a Hall/Petry package being moved out. Then there is this article from last December by Cal Setar of HNGN with comments by Alam Muir (SI) and Thomas Drance (TheScore).

This is intriguing to me.

Personally I don’t rate Hall as high as some do. It’s well known. I believe he’s turning into the superstar who is oft-injured. I remember players like Wendel Clark and Peter Forsberg in his latter days being like this. Taylor Hall shouldn’t even be in the same conversation as Clark and Forsberg but unfortunately he’s a rising star who looks to be destined for an injury-plagued career.

So for me, Edmonton should cash in on him now. Of course he’ll do well as soon as he leaves the Oilers, that’s what good hockey players do. They play well and produce. Look at Perron for instance. Was he a bad player in Edmonton, no. Is he a better player in Pittsburgh, no. He’s flanking the best player in the NHL so no doubt he’s going to put up better numbers and that is the same thing that would happen if Hall were moved.

The concern as a fan shouldn’t be how well Hall would do on another team, it’s the return and how well that would help the Oilers.

So I propose this idea for an Edmonton/Tampa trade:

Taylor Hall, Jeff Petry, Ben Scrivens
for
Alex Killorn, Jonathan Drouin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Tampa’s own 1st round pick.

Too much? Not enough? Salary cap issues? Talk amongst yourselves.

-BLH