Trading Nail Yakupov

The Edmonton Oilers are going to trade a piece of that young core eventually. Taylor Hall would’ve brought them the most return had they not won the right to draft Connor McDavid. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is trending skywards in a very acute fashion. Jordan Eberle could probably bring back no.2 or no.3 defender. But in the end I believe that the good ol’ Canadian boys are safe. It’s Nail Yakupov that should be worried.

Personally I’d love to see a top six of Hall-McDavid-Yakupov and Draisaitl-RNH-Eberle come to fruition but I feel there’s a lack of veteran presence within that top 6 and the time has come to change that.

Ideally I’d like to add a power forward to that group. If I were to think aloud I’d say players like David Backes, Andrew Ladd, Milan Lucic, Wayne Simmonds, or Scott Hartnell are guys I think would contribute in a most positive way, Backes and Ladd being the most wanted of the group. But those players are pipe dreams aren’t they?

So we move on to the meat of our post today, trading Nail Yakupov.

To recap, Yakupov’s career had an amazing start during the lockout shortened season but then Dallas Eakins arrived and decided that young Nail should be the next Doug Jarvis and proceeded to stall Yak’s development for about a year and a half. Fast forward to the arrivals of Todd Nelson and Derek Roy and Nail Yakupov is a productive NHLer again! With a shiny new 2 year contract to boot.

So all of this has seen the return of Yakupov’s trade value. The majority of the doubters have fled a good portion of the believers remaining. But there will still be a few that will want to see Nail score consistently not just in bunches at the end of the season.

Yakupov will bring back a player or players that the Oilers need but what teams would be in the market for the Russian sniper?

Toronto Maple Leafs
New Jersey Devils
Carolina Hurricanes
Arizona Coyotes

I believe the above teams would be in the market for a goal scoring RWer. What would I ask for from each of these teams?

Toronto – I’d ask for Dion Phaneuf or Jonathan Bernier in the hopes that the Leafs would eat some salary and see the potential in having a top six consist of William Nylander, Nail Yakupov, Dylan Strome/Mitch Marner, James Van Riemsdyk, Nazim Kadri, and Phil Kessel.

For those of you that are Phaneuf haters, sure his contract is cumbersome and there is quite the divide in age but Dion Phaneuf brings something to the table that the Oilers do not have. A top pairing dman that can play in all situations. He doesn’t play with the edge he once had but he still possesses the ability to crack skulls when need be.

New Jersey – I’m asking for Adam Larsson. The Swedish blueliner is just coming into his own and in the nick of time for the Devils. There were whispers that he was a trending towards bustville but firing Peter DeBoer sorted that out. Now he’s a top pairing defenceman with the Devils.

The problem in New Jersey is they literally have no forwards coming through the pipeline. No game breaking prospects and a whole bunch of old veterans passing the time by until their contracts expire or they get dealt. And now that Lou Lamoriello has stepped aside and hired Ray Shero, there’ll be a youth movement in the garden state.

Enter Yakupov. Dealing RFA Adam Larsson wouldn’t be as catastrophic as a Devil fan might see it. They’ve actually got some nice pieces on the back-end coming up. Damon Severson, Eric Gelinas, and Steve Santini to name a few. So all wouldn’t be lost. Besides, with their pick in this year’s draft they are sure to draft one of Ivan Provorov or Zach Werenski.

Carolina Hurricanes – The Hurricanes you can bet will walk away from the draft with one of Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Noah Hanifin or Ivan Provorov unless they decide to pull the trigger on that rumored deal with Toronto that would bring the Phil Kessel and Nazim Kadri.

The Carolina roster is a mess. I’m not sure I’d go knocking on their door offering Yakupov unless Justin Faulk was coming back the other way and he’s their no.1 dman. Hadyn Fleury will be good but I don’t think he’ll be what Faulk is.

Arizona Coyotes – There are two players on this team I love, Shane Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and I can’t see Don Maloney giving up either. Doan’s experience and leadership, exactly why I want him, will be an invaluable asset to the young Coyotes and OEL should be a Norris trophy candidate.

When I was planning to write this post my initial spark was a deal between the Islanders and the Oilers that would send Nail Yakupov to Brooklyn for Griffin Reinhart. But after looking at the Islanders depth chart, I don’t see that going down.

And just lastly before we end it. We talked about the New Jersey Devils lack of youthful forwards coming up in their system before but is there a scenario where you’d deal Leon Draisaitl and Nail Yakupov to the Devils for Adam Larsson and their first rounder this year and then select Provorov?

Thanks for reading! Please follow me on Twitter (@beerleagueheroe) and comment below!

– BLH