Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli is no stranger to big deals and even bigger splashes. During his previous stint with the Boston Bruins Chiarelli brokered deals that landed foundational pieces for the B's - Dennis Seidenberg, Nathan Horton - and trades that left fans, and the team, scratching their heads and wondering - Tyler Seguin, Johnny Boychuck. Now with the Oilers, Chiarelli doesn't seem to be shying away from his big-game hunting style.
According to Mark Spector of Sportnet, Chiarelli offered center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the Nashville Predators in an effort to land behemoth blueliner Seth Jones. The Predators were, of course, targeting the addition of a No. 1 center and wound up landing Ryan Johansen from the Columbus Blue Jackets straight up for Jones.
As Spector notes, the fact that Chiarelli was willing to offer up Nugent-Hopkins likely indicates that he's the player Chiarelli views as most expendable amongst his group of talented young forwards. Taylor Hall has established himself as one of the league's elite power forwards and Leon Draisaitl's ceiling is still to be established. And Connor McDavid is, well, Connor McDavid.
Interestingly, as Spector notes, Nugent-Hopkins actually averages slightly more points-per-game than Johansen (0.719 to 0.636) over their matching five-year NHL careers. And based purely on skill and/or talent, five of nine unnamed NHL personnel men polled by Spector actually preferred Nugent-Hopkins to Johansen.
But the issue, as it always is, is money. Nugent-Hopkins has five years remaining on a deal that carries an AAV of $6 million. Johansen, on the other hand, makes just $3 million this season and $6 million in 2016-17.
Of course, Johansen's ask on his next contract is likely to be massive, especially if his addition helps push the Predators from legitimate contender to Cup threat, so whatever relief Nashville GM David Poile is seeing now, will evaporate, and quickly.
