There have been rumblings for a while now that the Edmonton Oilers with this slow start are looking to make a move. The Columbus Blue Jackets are still looking for an upgrade at forward; they were in on Matt Duchene right until the end. The Jackets have been playing well but that need for a forward still exists.
Everything started to heat up Monday night when Peter Chiarelli was in Buffalo to watch the Jackets-Sabres game.
This lead to Pierre LeBrun speculating on if the Oilers were looking at the Jackets defence, seeing as they have depth there.
You take that plus the fact that David Savard was a healthy scratch last week and you had some people thinking that perhaps Savard could be on the move to Edmonton.
On Tuesday, Darren Dreger on Toronto’s TSN 1050, confirmed the Oilers were looking for a defencemen, but did not mention David Savard, instead bringing up Ryan Murray’s name. Full quote courtesy of
FanRag Sports
“A lot of people swirling around the Columbus Blue Jackets and Ryan Murray. We seem to want to talk about Ryan Murray almost on an annual basis now, from a trade perspective. No question the Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche had multiple conversations about Duchene because that’s what Columbus is looking for. Columbus is looking for a centerman and it’s believed that Ryan Murray would have been part of that deal.
“But things have changed a little bit. So let’s go back to the draft in Chicago. I know Columbus was willing to consider a top pick for Ryan Murray. Now they want player-for-player, and they’re in the market for a center. Is it Ryan Nugent-Hopkins out of Edmonton. Who might it be. Right now Nuge is playing great hockey for the Oilers, so I don’t think they’re interested in parting with him.
“But my sense is the asking price – if it’s Ryan Murray, or for most defenseman that the Oilers have some interest in – is still too high.”
The Jackets clearly value Murray very highly, as they should. They also have a lot of confidence in their defensive depth, notably Gabriel Carlsson. Wanting a high-pick at the draft for Murray made a ton of sense at the time. The Jackets gave up their first round pick to Vegas as part of the David Clarkson deal, and surely there were players they wanted in the first round.
Things have changed but have changed for other teams, not the Jackets. The Jackets were expected to be good and they have been. No one expected the Oilers to be this bad, and I don’t think many expected a player like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to have his name floated around in trade speculation.
On Tuesday night, Bob McKenzie and Pierre Lebrun were on Insider Trading on TSN and had the same things to report as Dreger. LeBrun said that Oilers are looking for a defencemen. McKenzie confirmed that the Jackets want to add a centre and that Ryan Murray is a name that gets thrown around as potentially being available, but was quick to say that it might not just be him. You can check out the full video
here.
We have now is the basis for a Nuge for Murray swap. No doubt the Jackets would love to do this as a one for one, as that would basically be Hall for Larson and Eberle for Strome all over again, in terms of value. I’m still a big fan of Ryan Murray but he comes with significant risks, and those risks are why the value is such a mismatch. The Jackets would have to add something to this trade, like draft picks, to help off-set those risks.
So are the two teams close on a trade, no, but in today’s league it doesn’t take long for trades to materialize. If the Oilers are as motivated as people think to shake things up and the Jackets are motivated to move a defencemen, this is something that could happen sooner rather than later.
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