There's something wrong with the Edmonton Oilers. Despite a bevy of young talent in the forward corps, including the recent additions of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers simply can't seem to win. And that's really what it boils down to. They have the talent - though the backend is certainly suspect - and a good coach in Todd McLellan, but yet they simply have the look of a group that just doesn't know how to win consistently. For an NHL franchise - or really, any franchise in any sport - facing such a situation, the determination of a fix can be tricky.
Shuffling lines? Calling up prospects? Making an example out of one player or another via demotion? Options abound for potential answers, but few look truly appetizing for Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. And yet, the most commotion-inducing possibility remains as well, and, per recent reports, seems the likeliest avenue for Chiarelli and Edmonton to go down - trades.
Reports in the past week or so have suggested that Chiarelli's focus, and rightly so, remains on the upgrade of the team's defensive corps. Oscar Klefbom and Darnell Nurse are talented, but they're young and sorely in need of time - time to develop, time to grow physically and mentally into the players the Oilers hope they can be. But in the meantime, the forwards, nearly all of whom are facing their own developmental periods, continue to struggle to make up for defensive deficiencies and the team, in turn, continues to lose.
Chiarelli is said to be about as "in on" New York Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic any team in the league. The trouble is, Hamonic would prefer to go to the Winnipeg Jets and there would seem to be a better potential trade fit there for Islanders GM Garth Snow, who is said to be eyeing a defender of Hamonic's caliber in return.
The Oilers and Chiarelli, of course, can't part ways with their two possibly elite young defenseman in order to land Hamonic. What would that accomplish?
Which leads the tortured Edmonton fan to the eventual conclusion that some of that young forward talent, still fighting to establish itself at the professional level, could be shipped out in order to land an elite defensive presence. Right wing Jordan Eberle and center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have both been touted as the "likeliest" to be dealt, though that seems as much informed speculation as anything.
Still, TSN NHL insider Darren Dreger added to the trade talk surrounding the Oilers on Tuesday, suggesting, per Today's Slap Shot's transcription of his remarks, that "few untouchables" exist on an Edmonton roster that currently sits in the NHL's basement. And while common sense says players like McDavid, Draisaitl and Taylor Hall aren't going anywhere, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins and Justin Schultz - players that have been in the Oilers system long enough for the culture of losing to permeate their psyches - could very well become trade bait in Chiarelli's efforts to upgrade other areas of the roster.
Does poaching from strength to fix a weakness work as a means of roster building? It's a difficult question to answer and, really, probably a case-by-case basis.
Will the notoriously daring Chiarelli, said to be open for business "in any way," according to Dreger, make a deal or three this season? The answer is likely, "yes."
But, will those trades finally pull the Oilers out of the doldrums? That's the million dollar question.
