Edmonton’s season is only a few games old, and the Oilers are already hunting for help up front.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday Headlines that general manager Stan Bowman is open to a lateral deal that would send one of the club’s extra defensemen out in exchange for forward depth.
The blue line is relatively intact. The forward group is not.
Less than two months ago, Bowman was emphasizing the value of opening the year with breathing room under the cap. At the time, Edmonton was sitting on close to $5 million.
Injuries have since pushed the club into long-term injured reserve. Goaltender Frederik Andersen and defenseman Alec Regula are out, and five forwards are already unavailable. Matthew Savoie is on LTIR. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jason Dickinson, and Mattias Janmark are on regular injured reserve. Zach Hyman is expected to miss a couple of weeks and has not yet been placed on IR himself.
The Oilers carried 16 forwards on their opening roster, counting the injured, and have already recalled Max Jones and Josh Samanski from the minors. That is a thin margin for a team that expects to contend.
The back end offers the most plausible trade chips, but only below the top of the chart. Edmonton’s clear top five all earn at least $4 million and are signed for at least the next three seasons.
Moving one of them would be a different kind of deal. That leaves Shakir Mukhamadullin, Ty Emberson, and Spencer Stastney as the names most likely to be discussed.
Mukhamadullin, 24, arrived this summer in the Darnell Nurse trade and is in the first year of a two-year contract at $1.75 million. He has averaged 11:32 in two appearances and has already been scratched once.
He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights when the deal ends, so any team acquiring him would be buying more than a short rental. Emberson, 26, is a pending unrestricted free agent at $1.3 million.
He was close to a full-time third-pairing player the past two seasons and posted 12 points, 106 blocks, and 107 hits in 15:31 a night over 72 games last year, but he has been a healthy scratch in two of Edmonton’s first three games.
Stastney, also 26, was acquired midseason for a third-round pick, played 36 games after the deal, and signed a one-year, $1.575 million contract in July to avoid arbitration. He now looks like the eighth defenseman.
Because the Oilers are already in LTIR, they can keep recalling replacements without forcing a trade. The move is not a necessity. It is still worth exploring.
Several clubs are expected to be shopping for affordable depth on defense, and Bowman has a short list of players who fit that description.
Given how far the Oilers have already dipped into their forward ranks, a modest upgrade on the wing or at center would be a reasonable use of a spare blueliner.
