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It's now become a tradition on here. When Eklund throws out an Oilers-related rumor, I comment on it and expand on the conversation. The Jason Arnott to Edmonton thing ABSOLUTELY could happen. Throwing this in there for all you doubters out there. This rumor has some legs.
Here's how this works...
The Oilers have been looking to add a Top 4 defenseman. They've been offering up Ales Hemsky and various prospects (Magnus Paajarvi, Linus Omark, Colten Teubert, Alex Plante, Theo Peckham, etc). What the Oilers are selling, no one is buying. Common sense dictates the Oilers can't go into 2012/2013 without added at least one more quality guy on the back end.
The solution? For the Oilers to up the ante. Obviously, Justin Schultz, Oscar Klefbom, Taylor Hall, Jeff Petry, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov, Jordan Eberle, Ladislav Smid and Devan Dubnyk are not going anywhere. I don't want to sound like I'm copying Bob Stauffer's Twitter messages from last night (lol...I write a blog about Bob not tweeting enough, and an hour later, he tweeted for about two hours straight. I guess that answers the question if he reads my blogs). I agree with Stauffer and have mentioned this in blogs before: A championship team needs a core of around 12 key players. 7 forwards, 4 D and 1 goalie. The above group I mentioned in 9 out of 12. What's missing? A 2nd line center with size, a 3rd line center with two-way quality, and a 2nd line LW with size. You can add in one more needed player to fill the hole while Oscar Klefbom develops.
Aside from Ales Hemsky being available for trade, the Oilers might be forced to move Sam Gagner in order to get back a defenseman of value. I hate this. I think Gagner is going to turn into a 60pts per season guy, and he's all heart. But sadly for him and the Oilers, he's the logical guy to go. Hall, Yaks, Nuge and Eberle are all better players. Facts are facts. None of those four have much in the way of size. The players the Oilers need to find to fill the remaining two spots need to be big.
Which brings us back to Jason Arnott. Arnott is a stop-gap. He's 37. If he was 27 instead, he'd be the perfect center to add to the mix for the next five to seven seasons. But he's 37 and he'd be a somewhat-Ryan Smyth like addition to the team. Adding Arnott would allow the Oilers to move Gagner, and would give the team a couple of seasons to find the long-term 2nd line center answer.
The LW-with-size situation might sort itself out without a deal. It could be Magnus Paajarvi or Teemu Hartikainen. It could be Tyler Pitlick, if they can move him to the left side and it works. As for the 3rd line center, the Oilers still believe very much Anton Lander is the future guy.
Okay, so let's say Arnott is on the Oilers radar...two years at, let's say, $2.5mil each? As Staffer mentioned yesterday, the 2013 draft is full of quality centers, so the future 2nd line guy could come from there.
I threw out a bunch of names yesterday of defensemen the Oilers could pursue. It could be Yandle; could be Green from Washington. It could be someone else, like Tobias Enstrom or Zach Bogosian from Winnipeg. It could be Jay Bouwmeester from Calgary, although I don't like the sound of a Gagner-for-Bouwmeester deal. I can't help but wonder if Buffalo is possible. Would Jordan Leopold, who played 22 minutes per game last season for the Sabres, sign an extension, making dealing for him make sense? Or what about Eric Brewer from Tampa? The team is spending a fortune on D next season. Maybe someone needs to go? Maybe Brewer would come back to Edmonton?
Where there's smoke, there's fire...I'm sticking with the original rumor out there, that Gagner + Paarjarvi and maybe a 2nd round pick (the one from Anaheim) could end up in Phoenix for Keith Yandle. This is, of course, if the Oilers find a 2 or 3 year 2nd line replacement at center first.
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