2 early Oilers trade candidates after 1st-round loss to Ducks

A disappointing first-round loss for a team built around superstars is usually when trade rumors begin to surface and quickly gain traction. You see it in Toronto with Auston Matthews, and Ottawa with Brady Tkachuk, and it isn’t going to be long before everyone is concocting trade ideas for the Edmonton Oilers. With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl not getting any younger, people are going to start wondering if they could become trade candidates for the Oilers.

Picking both of those players as trade candidates would be taking the easy way out for this piece. It makes sense that both players would want to take a run at a Stanley Cup in their primes, and they didn’t do anything to fan the flames with their comments during the Oilers’ locker cleanout day. Both superstars believe Edmonton has taken a step back, and after watching them go from Stanley Cup Final runners-up in back-to-back years to not even close to beating a brand-new playoff team in the Anaheim Ducks, it’s hard to argue.

Oilers fans might have some concerns about Stan Bowman improving the team through trade after the whole Tristan Jarry debacle. Bowman relinquished Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a second-round pick for Jarry in December, and the former Penguins goalie was nothing but a bench-warmer for most of the playoffs. It is one of those trades that is hard to come back from for a general manager, but Bowman does have some leeway to fix what he messed up.

Bowman now has $15 million in cap space and requires a center and right wing on their third and fourth lines, a right-shot defenseman, and a starting goaltender, and that is just the bare minimum. If the Oilers are going to improve their team, salary has to move out.

Trading Darnell Nurse’s contract could significantly help Oilers’ issues

If Edmonton is looking to clear out some salary cap space, Nurse’s $9.5 million annually for the next four seasons would be a great start. Nurse was once the defensive anchor in the three-headed monster with McDavid and Draisaitl, but he is now the anchor dragging down this team’s defense. Mattias Ekholm is a much better defensive stopper on the left side, and Jake Walman has also been better for the Oilers. Having Nurse as a third-pair guy making $9.5 million is one example of wasting the savings from McDavid’s team-friendly deal.

Nurse isn’t known for his offense, but one stat making the rounds for Edmonton after their elimination shows how much his game has gone downhill. The left-shot defenseman had seven goals this season, and countered that by putting seven goals into his own net (5 in the regular season and 2 in the playoffs). It’s a bit of a bad-luck stat, considering pucks traveling at 90 miles per hour can sometimes ricochet off a player and into the net without warning, but it’s equally depressing for Oilers fans given the state of their team.

Nurse’s advanced numbers can almost convince you that much of his problems are just a product of bad luck, and there’s always a chance that he can turn it around. However, the Oilers have likely seen enough to know that a bounce-back with Edmonton might not be in the cards for Nurse, and he could need a fresh start. Nurse has a no-move clause, but he might waive it for the right opportunity. Finding a team willing to take that chance on him might be the toughest thing to do.

Trent Frederic was Stan Bowman’s other mistake

When you acquire a player at the trade deadline, and he records just four points in 23 games, the first thing you should do is sign him to an eight-year contract extension with a full no-move clause for the first four seasons, at least if your name is Stan Bowman. The Trent Frederic contract extension was one of those moves that felt like a mistake as soon as it happened, but it was somehow even worse.

Frederic played 74 games this season, recording just four goals and three assists. He played a little over 11 minutes per game and was an abysmal -15. The playoffs took it to another level, recording no points in four games, as he sat in the press box for two of the six.

The Oilers will now pay Frederic $3.85 million for the next seven years. In another example of wasting the savings from McDavid’s team-friendly deal, it’ll be contracts like this that Oilers fans will look back on if either of their superstars asks out in the next few seasons.

It may be another no-move clause, but after being the brunt of the joke for the entire season, why wouldn’t Frederic want a fresh start?

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