The Oilers are in a bit of a spot with their newly signed Defenseman Jeff Petry in that they have other players penciled in above him on the depth chart and a load of young players who they WANT to pencil into his position in the minors who aren’t quite there yet. With Petry signed to a 1 year deal that will take him to Unrestricted Free Agency there’s a question as to what will be the best way to use this asset.

The immediate need of the NHL club is down the middle as the team lacks a proven 2C. It’s been a natural assumption that the Oilers should move Petry and other assets if necessary to deal with that spot.

There is, however, an alternative option when it comes to moving him.

As much work as the Oilers have put into the Defense in the last month there is still a lack of high end talent. It might be possible, if the moons line up, for the Oilers to try and address this deficiency with Petry. The catch is that the trade will certainly cost more than Petry alone, most likely a lot more.

Nobody is going to trade Shea Weber for Petry ++ unless their office has an undetected gas-leak so this proposed deal is going to involve someone with some perceived weaknesses on the ice and with a team that just MIGHT be willing to part with a quality player. The bulk of the Free Agent signings are over and situations are different all over the league than they were 2 weeks ago. There is opportunity out there.

I would suggest the Oilers use Jeff Petry as the main NHL player in a package for Mike Green of the Washington Capitals.

Green is an Alberta product with a history of offensive production from the backend, but he also has an injury history that is scary and (like Petry) is 1 season away from Unrestricted Free Agency.

The Caps just landed two big money free agents in Orpik (That Contract!) and Niskanen. Deals like that change the complexion of the blueline and a western based club might be able to shake Green loose. The offensive defenseman is a big ticket item at just over 6M and he actually makes a little more than that in actual salary this season. The Caps now have just 1.1M in Cap Space, which isn’t overly concerning because their roster is full but it doesn’t provide a lot of wiggle room.

In addition, they just committed a lot of money to a new right-shooting offensive defenseman. If you’re Mike Green the writing on the wall isn’t very nice. There are 3 right shooting defensemen on the Caps in Niskanen, Carlson, and Green. Somebody is going to miss out on ice time with this depth chart and I don’t think the Caps just unloaded a dump-truck full of cash onto Niskanen’s lawn so he can play 18 minutes a night and Carlson lead the Caps in ice-time last year.

Now Mike Green was the most productive defenseman on the Capitals last year but he also went -16 and is a pending UFA. I personally think regular +/- is a garbage stat and there are significantly better ones to use, but not everybody is there yet and lets hope the Caps aren’t. I say that because Mike Green had the best CorsiRel on the entire Capitals lineup. Better than Ovechkin. Better than Backstrom. Better than everybody. His problem was that he had a brutal PDO (the combination of on-ice sh% and on-ice sv%) with a .984 in the luck statistic. He couldn’t catch a break out there and teams tend to sour on quality players going through rough stretches like that.

But with that said, the Capitals aren’t in the business of giving away Defensemen free to a good home. So the Oilers need a lot more than Jeff Petry even if that deal would give the Caps 3M more in Cap Space. And even if the two teams agree to anything in principle then Green would have to agree to go to Edmonton as he has a modified NTC.

This feels fair to me: Mike Green in exchange for Jeff Petry, Martin Gernat, and a conditional 1st round pick in either 2015 or 2016 if Green signs an extension with the Oilers. If he does not then it is a 2016 2nd round pick.

Is that plausible? Do the Oilers need to add a lot more? Let me know.

This is the perfect time to make a move for Green. His team is geared up to move on without him and he is coming off of a bad luck season. The Oilers have a player who can fill the spot on the roster that Green would for half the price and they have potentially high picks and prospects to throw in.

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy

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