Once the Edmonton Oilers won the NHL draft lottery earlier this month, all bets were immediately off.
Oilers GM Craig MacTavish reportedly told two of the team's top offensive players - Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall - before the draft lottery that there was zero chance they'd be traded this offseason.
Now that superstar prospect Connor McDavid is set to become an Oiler, things have changed. MacTavish hasn't said as much, but there's really no other conclusion to come to.
Could MacTavish now reverse course and make one or both of Eberle and Hall available in trade and, more important is there, as Joe Haggerty of CSN New England posits, a trade to be made between the Oilers and Boston Bruins involving B's power forward Milan Lucic?
"They've long appreciated Milan Lucic's game in Edmonton, and the Oilers need Lucic's type of toughness, size and snarl among their top six forwards. Lucic is good friends with ex-Bruin and current Oilers captain Andrew Ference, and Edmonton is exactly the kind of offensive setting where the left winger could put together a gaudy contract year with free agency looming," writes Haggerty.
"Trading Lucic for a young gun like Eberle or Hall would be something the Bruins would have to consider. Hall or Eberle would bring that much-needed offensive finish around the net, and Hall would fit in well with the Bruins' style of play provided he's willing to work tirelessly at both ends . . . as he sometimes wasn't in offense-first Edmonton."
While the notion of moving Lucic still seems farfetched - he has a modified no-trade clause in his contract meaning if the Oilers are on his "no-trade" list, then there's no possibility of a deal - the 26-year-old did have a down season, along with the entire Bruins team, and it seems changes are likely afoot for the Boston organization beyond Peter Chiarelli's firing.
Another factor working against a possible Lucic trade, as noted by Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News, is the fact that Lucic's contract expires after the 2016 season.
"However, it's Lucic's UFA status in 2016 that works against such a move. Assuming the Oilers are willing to move Hall or Eberle (and at this point, there's nothing out of Edmonton suggesting either guy is available), they'll want assurances Lucic is willing to sign a contract extension before acquiring him. Otherwise, they're giving up a top asset for a player who could bolt in one year via free agency," writes Richardson.
Of course, all of this depends on the willingness of either franchise to actually make these guys available and it's been proven time and again that hockey personnel men are about as stubborn as a stone - willing to hold onto good assets that show glimpses of promise well after their expiration date should have passed.
In the end, Lucic likely won't become an Oiler and Eberle and Hall will probably stay in Edmonton, but there's no doubting that Edmonton could certainly use the infusion of grit and power that Lucic would bring to their too-often soft roster and that Boston would love to have the scoring touch of a player like Eberle in their lineup.
