November 16th 2018: The Edmonton Oilers would trade Ryan Strome to the New York Rangers in exchange for Ryan Spooner.
Strome was an excellent defensive centreman for the Oilers and a solid 5 on 5 producer but he got saddled with Milan Lucic on his line and stopped scoring. The moment he was traded he started to score again, putting up a career high (at the time) 18 goals with the Rangers in 63 games. He would go on to have a near 60 point campaign the following year, near a ppg pace in the shortened COVID season and a career high 21 goal season last year.
Ryan Spooner meanwhile had 2 goals in 25 games with the Oilers, was traded later that season for Sam Gagner and has not stepped foot in the NHL since. He is currently playing with the Minsk Dynamo in the KHL if anyone cares.
November 22nd, 2018: Edmonton acquires Chris Wideman in exchange for a 2020 6th round pick
Put your hands up if you remember the Chris Wideman era in Edmonton. Wideman played in 5 games for the Edmonton Oilers before...
December 30th, 2018: Edmonton acquires Alex Petrovic in exchange for Chris Wideman and a 2019 3rd round pick
Petrovic played in 9 games for the Edmonton Oilers, registering one assist. He was a healthy scratch most nights and since then he has not touched the ice as an NHL player and has bounced around a few AHL teams.
December 30th, 2018: Edmonton acquires Brandon Manning and Robin Norell in exchange for Jason Garrison and Drake Caggiula
Had to Google Robin Norell because I completely forgot about that part. Left shot defender, 27 years old...playing in Sweden... wonder if he could take away some minutes from Nurse.... I digress. Remember when the Oilers traded for the guy that broke McDavid's collarbone? Remember that Manning had two years remaining on his deal at 2.25 million and Chicago fans were elated that Bowman was able to find not only a way to offload that anchor but also acquire some decent depth players as well?
Manning would play 12 games in 18/19 for the Oilers, followed by 9 games in 19/20 before being sent down to the AHL. Like almost every other player on this list the Oilers traded for, Manning would not play another game for another NHL team after their stint with Edmonton came to a merciful end.
---
Why am I forcing fans to remember the brutal end to the Peter Chiarelli era? The Ken Holland era may soon be coming to an end as well if last night's loss is any indication. Edmonton sleepwalked their way through another embarrassing loss; this time against another divisional opponent they are trying to catch up to in the LA Kings. I'm not going to rehash the game because it is the same story. The top guys were not good enough, the PK was awful, and the top pairing is anything but.
Forget about winning a Cup, this roster cannot compete for a playoff spot right now. Moves need to be made and Ken Holland very quickly is going to find himself in a position where he is going to have to make trades if he wants to keep his job. The problem with that fact is we have seen in the past what kinds of trades a GM who is trying to save his own skin will make.
The "reasoning" behind hiring Ken Holland as a GM was that he was not going to take needless risks, build a strong pool of prospects which in combination with some free agents would bolster the top core guys and help this team compete.
Instead we have a group of average prospects, with some promising names but nothing ready to make an immediate impact, a combination of good free agent adds and poor ones, and absolutely no cap room to play with. This is a team that is struggling to fight for a wild card spot and once Evander Kane returns they won't be able to run a full 23 man roster. Money clearly well spent.
---
Things are getting ugly fast in Edmonton and the sad fact is this may not be rock bottom. Lose to the Ducks or the Sharks and sit back and watch what kind of turmoil this city will be in. Holland has never excelled in making fast trades that suddenly change the outcome of a team for the better and I don't expect that to change now. If Holland makes a kneejerk trade to try and fix this team... look to the above trades to guess at how that will go.
Thanks for reading.