The Rig Roundtable: Post-Deadline Edition

<![CDATA[Wednesday's trade deadline came and went without a lot of fanfare, much to the chagrin of armchair GMs everywhere. The Oilers didn't get Kevin Shattenkirk (he's gone to Washington, as the Capitals are looking to make a real run for the Cup), but they did get David Desharnais because….reasons.

Because of the deadline, this week's question was pretty easy to come up with:

What do you think about the Oilers deadline activity?

Preston Hodgkinson

The lack of activity by the Oilers did not make for a very exciting trade deadline, which would have been nice, but I can’t complain.

The team shipped out Brandon Davidson, who they would probably of lost to Vegas, for David Desharnais. Desharnais has had a disappointing year so far this season but, he does have a history of putting up points in his career. He fills the Oilers’ need for a third line center and he will buy Drake Caggiula some time to develop further.

The second move made by the team was a minor league deal that saw the team swap Taylor Beck for Justin Fontaine. This is a deal I was quite happy with as I believe that Fontaine has more potential to be an NHL player than Beck. A solid depth move by Chiarelli.

Perhaps the biggest question that came out of Deadline Day for the Oilers is the team’s insistence to rely on Laurent Brossoit as the backup moving forward. Chiarelli expressed confidence in Brossoit going into the stretch but, I can’t help but think that the team would have been better suited with a veteran backup who has played postseason hockey before.

In the end, I give the Oilers a letter grade of B for their overall Trade Deadline activity.

Rex Libris

If we take the roster needs going in as being a 3rd line center/winger, backup goalie and a scoring right winger. They got one of those things in Desharnais and it sounds as though they were looking to make a deal to address the goaltending but it didn’t work out. I think Chiarelli was working to balance two things this deadline, supporting the roster in their playoff drive but also knowing that the prospect cupboard is curiously bare and that affordable depth skill on entry-level contracts will become a premium asset in three to five years’ time when both McDavid and Draisaitl are on their 2nd contracts.

Would I say I’m happy with it? In so far as they didn’t send away any significant assets they weren’t likely going to lose anyway and that the roster has shown an ability to win games against virtually any opponent, I supposed I would say that I am reasonably content with the decisions that were made.”

Sean Wingrave

I’m okay with the Oilers deadline activity. No reason to give away assets when a cup run is probably in the cards in a future season, not this one. I don’t understand all the angst regarding trading a bottom of the roster player (who don’t have an offensive pedigree) for a bit player to help in the playoff push. Fans need to step away from the ledge.

Megan Fowler

I’m not sure why people were so upset about the Oilers not making any big deals. The expansion draft certainly changed the way that GMs looked at their deadline deals, and so it’s not surprising that the biggest name traded was Shattenkirk.

The Oilers were relatively quiet, and considering what as available that’s not a bad thing. The Davidson-Desharnais trade is a bit of a headscratcher, but it forces the Oil to expose someone other than Davidson at the draft, in hopes that Vegas will take Griffen Reinhart or Mark Fayne off our hands.

As far as I can tell, the Oilers aren’t going to be making a deep playoff run this year, so trading assets for rentals this year wasn’t the smart play, and I’m glad they didn’t do that. I’m also glad they didn’t add Steve Ott, because he’s terrible.

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