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Chiaready To Trade?

May 2, 2016, 5:34 PM ET [160 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Edmonton Oilers allowed 245 goals against in 2015-16. They scored 203 goals for.

That ranks 27th overall in the NHL in goals against.


Calgary finished dead last with 257 goals allowed against.


The glass half-full analysis is that the 2014-15 Oilers scored just 198 goals while allowing 283 goals against.


Sadly, there are no participation medals in the NHL. Otherwise, the Oilers would certainly have earned one for sucking less this season than they did last season.


Props to Kevin McLellan for improving his goal differential tear to year from -85 to -42.


The Oilers need to start defending their end of the rink better. The only way that McLellan can succeed in Edmonton is if he can improve his defensive corps dramatically over the summer.

We all know that Connor McDavid, Taylor Hall, RNH, Nail Yakupov, Leon Draisaitl, and Jordan Eberle can score and light the lamp. However, when are they going to start buying in to a more defensively structured system that limits shot attempts and scoring chances against.


*Crickets*


Gone are the days where the Oilers can spend lottery picks on scoring forwards like sailors on shore leaver. The Oilers have become typecast as a clinic for young, skilled guys who are allergic to playing defense.

I applaud Oilers GM Pete Chiarelli who told CHED radio in Edmonton that he is strongly considering trading his fourth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft for defensive help.

“There’s a real legitimate chance to look to move this pick, to improve our team to get bigger or to get a D and get something else. There’s also a chance, as I said in my previous comments, that we could move the pick to get an NHL defenseman, too. That is a top four defenseman. We’re going to look at a lot of different things.”


Chiarelli's Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 by excelling from Tim Thomas' net out and down the middle of the ice. Chiarelli's D Boston D corps was feared around the NHL as being a bunch of lousy S.O.B.'s who would knock over old ladies with their shopping carts rather than wait in the express lane at Walmart.

Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Johhny Boychuk, Andrew Ference, and Adam McQuaid were some tough hombres who made enemy forwards play a stiff price for treading into their end of the rink with a puck on the stick.

Quick. Tell me the name of two Oiler defenseman from this past season who scare the living crap out of you.

*Waiting*

You can't name two, can you?

Darnell Nurse is a nice player, however, he is still so very green and inexperienced at the pro level. He will develop into a great D, however, he is not there yet.

In order for McLellan and Chiarelli top achieve their goals of playing meaningful games in May and June, they are going to have to trade their fourth overall pick and some of their young skill in exchange for a couple of mauling D-men.

Were Chiarelli to kep his fourth overall pick, he might ne tempted invest it in another skilled forward like Alex Nylander, Matt Tkachuk or Pierre-Luc Dubois.


Chiarelli and McLellan are going to have to bite the bullet and trader away #4 in order to shift the paradigm from stock piling offensive weapons to loading up on defensive stalwarts.


Chiarelli's fourth overall pick is already attracting attention and phone calls from NHL teams. Chiarelli would be wise to align himself with an NHL GM with a top 8 pick, say like the Buffalo Sabres.

Tim Murray has a top four roster D in former Edmonton Oil Kings captain Mark Pysyk (6'1" and 200lbs.) A righty who would add immediate value to the Oil. Pysyk is a slick puck mover from the back end back. He joins the rush and skates so well that he is the first man back to the D zone.

So, I 'd make a trade of Pysyk, Josh Gorges, Tyler Ennis (an Edmonton native) and Buffalo's 8th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft to Edmonton in exchange for the scoring top six winger it needs in Taylor Hall. Chiarelli would also have to trade his fourth overall pick to Buffalo.

Chiarelli would use Buffalo's 8th overall pick to select Jakob Chychun. Tim Murray would parlay Edmonton's fourth overall pick into either Tkachuk or Dubois.

Taylor Hal is currently playing LW for Derrick Brassard and Samson Reinhart on Team Canada's top line trio at the World Championshios. I've often con template a Buffalo power trio of Hall-Eichel-Reinhart. I will be watching closely as Hall and Reinhart build chemistry in Russia.

Tim Murry liked the chemistry that Ryan O'Reilly and Tyler Ennis enjoyed at The Worlds lay May. Team Canada won the gold medal and Murray tradeD for ROR. Is Hall on Murray's radar today? He should be.



Chiarelli might also look to Anaheim for NHL defensemen. The Ducks are stacked on their blue line. Bob Murray will be re-signing pending RFAs Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen. Kevin Bieksa, Simon Despres, Shea Theodore, Josh Manson and Clayton Stoner are the long term guys there. Brandon Montour is the next best prospect in the system after Theodore gets a full time ride with the Ducks.

Will Cam Fowler become expendable when Lindholm and Vatanen re-sign long term contract extensions to stay in Anaheim?


Cam Fowler, a left handed QB, and Taylor Hall played junior together at OHL Windsor. They created a lot of offense together in the short time that they played together in Widsor. In 2009-10, Fowler scored 55 points in 55 games during the regular season, then 14 points in 19 playoff games. Hall scored 40 goals and added 66 assists during the 2009-10 regular season, then added another 17 goals and 18 assists in 19 playoff games.

Perhaps RNH and the fourth overall pick can deliver Fowler and Stoner to Edmonton.
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