Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli was said to have soon-to-be ex-New York Rangers netminder Cam Talbot squarely "in his crosshairs" earlier this week.
Talbot is an up-and-coming netminder just entering his prime who played well in 30-plus games in place of an injured Henrik Lundqvist last season and seems set to finally take on a full-time load at the NHL level.
Thus, while Chiarelli may have his sights set on Talbot, there's no guarantee he'll land him, as numerous other teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Dallas Stars are said to have varying degrees of interest in the young veteran netminder.
Because of this, Chiarelli has reportedly set himself a back-up plan in the form of Los Angeles Kings goaltender, Marvin Jones, and a back-up to his back-up, in Ottawa Senators goalie Robin Lehner.
"I think, honestly, if Edmonton were going to make a deal, they would choose in this order: It would Talbot. It would go Jones. And then might go Robin Lehner of the Ottawa Senators," TSN NHL Insider Darren Dreger said, while appearing on Toronto's TSN 1050, via TodaysSlapShot.com.
HNGN passed along a reported on Wednesday evening that, while Kings GM Dean Lombardi was not actively shopping Jones, he was listening intently to offers on a player who had reportedly become a "prime trade target" on the NHL goalie market.
Jones is just 25 years old and managed a 2.25 goals against average and a .906 save percentage in 15 games in place of Jonathan Quick last season. He's younger than Talbot, but has less experience and while his youth means getting a player with, presumably, more to his NHL future, it could also mean a player that is not yet mentally ready to shoulder the load full-time.
According to Dreger, there are other issues beyond Jones' readiness which my potentially complicate a deal for the Oilers or, really, any other NHL franchise.
"But what complicates Marty Jones are a couple of things. No. 1 I'm sure Dean Lombardi would prefer he trades him to an Eastern Conference team so that he doesn't have to stare at him in Western Conference games," said Dreger. "There's some negotiating that's going on right now. They'd like to keep Marty Jones potentially.
"But if you're Martin Jones, do you sign a contract with the L.A. Kings? And what does that contract look like? Well, chances are it's a shorter term, say two years. Probably around $1-1.3 million. Right? Well, that's backup money. If the Edmonton Oilers make a trade for Martin Jones, and I use Edmonton as my example, he's probably going to want to sign a better contract (laughs) as a starter in the NHL than two years at (somewhere in the range of) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3."
According to NHLNumbers.com, the Oilers and Chiarelli currently have approximately $20.4 million in cap space at the moment, so signing Jones or Talbot or any other young netminder they eventually deal for shouldn't be a problem.
The trick, of course, will be determining a fair value for a player who has yet to post consistently high production on a full-time basis, whoever that player may be.
