Off-Season Targets: The Wrap Up

We are just eight days away from the NHL’s annual entry draft, meaning it is time to shift from discussing possible summer additions to discussing the actual draft picks, trades and free agent signings.

Over the last two months, I’ve been looking at potential free agent and trade additions for the Edmonton Oilers at all major positions. We started with the goaltenders, shifted to the defenders and concluded with the forwards yesterday.

Here are the goaltenders we looked at during this series: Anton Khudobin, Carter Hutton, Michael Hutchinson, Jaroslav Halak, Jhonas Enroth, Pavel Francouz, Philipp Grubauer, Ville Husso and Chad Johnson.

We’ve already seen movement in this area, as the Oilers signed KHL star Mikko Koskinen in early May. Pavel Francouz can be crossed off the list, as he signed a contract with Colorado back in early May as well.

Here are the defenders we looked at: Justin Faulk, Tyson Barrie, Mike Green, John Carlson, Erik Karlsson, Andrej Sustr, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Chris Wideman, Torey Krug, Damon Severson, Colin Miller and Sami Niku.

Not a ton happening here, but we do know that Ekman-Larsson is no longer an option. He’s signed an eight-year contract extension with Arizona that will become official on July 1st. I suspect the Oilers will be in the market for a guy like Faulk, who seems certain to move at this point.

Here are the forwards we looked at: Derek Ryan, Thomas Vanek, Patrick Maroon, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Riley Nash, James Van Riemsdyk, James Neal, David Perron, Jannik Hansen, Scott Hartnell, Antoine Roussel, Michael Grabner, Dominic Moore, Kyle Brodziak, Drew Stafford, Brandon Pirri and Ryan O’Reilly.

We also took a look at AHL options Austin Czarnik, Ben Street and Curtis Valk here. Why? Because according to club insider Bob Stauffer in early May, adding a high-end AHL center is likely to be on Chiarelli’s list this summer.

The Wrap:

I truly hope you have enjoyed this year’s edition of ‘Off-Season Targets’. I was able to add numerous fan suggestions and can say that I really enjoy writing these pieces. I’m not sure about you, but I find that writing these better educates me on players that will be changing teams this summer. I certainly hope it helped you all in some small way.

Who would you like to see the Oilers add this summer? From this list, I’d like to see some combination of Czarnik, Vanek, Moore, Pirri, Wideman and Barrie added. I don’t think the Oilers really need a major face-lift, this team is closer than it showed last year for sure.

Let me know below in the comments who you would like to see added this summer. I’m always interested to see what you all think!