Oilers Trade For a Defenseman, Not If But When

All the talk in Oiler land lately has been about trading for a defenseman and doing it soon. Earlier this week Elliot Friedman broke the news that New York Islanders blue liner Travis Hamonic has requested a trade for personal reasons and would like to play closer to his home in Manitoba. The Oilers are a team on his list of preffered destinations. That’s refreshing in itself no matter what the reasons may be, I’d venture to say that if this scenario arose 2 or 3 seasons ago Edmonton would not be a likely target.

Anyhow, In the above video Friedman indicates that it may take a 3 team deal in order to get Hamonic to move to a new team. There are teams that the Oilers can make this work with. I hate putting names to these things because it is entirely speculation. But what about the Minnesota Wild, they’re looking for a forward which the Oilers have a few they might be willing to move. Let’s say Minny ships Spurgeon to NYI for Hamonic then flips Hamonic to the Oilers for a Yakupov ++ or Eberle or some other combination of players.

There are players other then Hamonic available as well, although he may be the best of the bunch. Mark Spector reported on Friday night that Trevor Daley from the Blackhawks is available, and even better that the Oilers my be able to get him for Nikitan. Daley isn’t a player that is going to be a top 2 defenseman, and if the ask is just Nikitan then I think maybe Chiarelli either isn’t interested or is waiting to see what other players he can get before settling for a lower end piece.

There are other teams that are looking for scoring as well, which bodes well for the Oilers search to bolster the blue. The most commonly named team is the Nashville Predators, they’ve seemingly learned that without a prolific scorer it’s tough to go anywhere in the playoffs. They’ve got Seth Jones who’s an RFA and going to demand a large sum of money, if they decide to keep him then maybe Shea Weber is a player they’d be willing to move. Matthias Ekholm isn’t going anywhere as they just resigned him and I doubt Ryan Ellis is a player the Oilers covet.

One also has to wonder if the Pittsburgh Penguins may be getting impatient with the lack of goal scoring this year and may look to make a move. The Pens have Letang signed long term, Olli Maatta and Adam Clendening emerging as good options and Derrick Pouliot incubating in the minors. Maybe there is a deal to be had there. A winger and lower end defenseman perhaps for a guy like Letang? Or a prospect package for Pouliot?

Regardless of how you look at it, or how I speculate of what may be, we know that there is a move coming eventually. The 20 game mark, the time Chiarelli said he wanted to evaluate his roster, is here. Now it’s only a matter of time before we see some action from the Oilers front office.

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