The NHL rumor mill is churning hard and fast these days, the latest offering a pretty decent sized whopper that would significantly alter the landscape of a couple of organizations.
The Philadelphia Flyers may be talking trade with the Edmonton Oilers, with Edmonton right winger Jordan Eberle possibly playing a starring role slightly different than the one he fills on the ice, according to Eklund of Hockeybuzz.
A good friend of mine at the NHL tells me there is tons of talk surrounding the Oilers and Flyers today...
The latest is talk the Oilers have big interest in Brayden Schenn and Braydon Coburn. The Flyers are mainly interested in Eberle, but Yakupov for the first time I have heard, is also on the radar.
The 24-year-old Eberle has seen his name come up in quite a few potential trade rumors in recent days. The former first-round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft has spent every season of his four-plus year career in Edmonton. He managed career highs in goals (34) and assists (42) in his sophomore season (h/t to Hockey-Reference), but came close to matching both those marks last season when he finished the year with 65 points.
He's got four goals and 10 assists in 20 games this season.
Yakupov is young at 21, but supremely talented, and this is only his third season in the league. He currently has three goals and four assists.
Coburn, a big, slightly-less-than-ideally mobile defenseman, has been the subject of trade discussion recently as well. The Flyers are a poor team defensively and yet, still somehow seem to have an overabundance of - mostly overpaid - blueliners.
Coburn's cap hit is $4.5 million, according to CapGeek.
Schenn, another former first-round pick who came to the Flyers as part of the now-infamous Mike Richards trade, has seven goals and eight assists on the year. He's still more potential than known commodity, but if Edmonton is willing to gamble on him, there's every chance they could be the team that finally gets him to play in a manner commensurate to his draft status.
