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Oilers trade Yakupov for almost nothing |
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Today the Oilers traded former 1st Overall pick Nail Yakupov for some navel lint and disc 2 of the final season of Lost on DVD…er…for a conditional 3rd round pick and an ECHL prospect you don’t know. Yakupov is on his way to St Louis and will wear 64 for his new club.
The teams waited until after 5 on Friday to announce the deal in which the Oilers gave away an NHL player for almost nothing at all. The Moral Authorities in the media will argue that the team is somehow better for it today. There is no evidence from the results on the ice that the Oilers were being negatively impacted by Yakupov’s play.
Actually, last year Nail Yakupov had a positive Corsi For RelTM for the first time in his career. He was turning the corner defensively and was productive when paired with offensive centermen. That the Oilers chose to pull the trigger on the Yak deal now shows that they weren’t willing to give their asset an opportunity to succeed and raise his value.
Since the Oilers have three quality centers in McDavid, RNH, and Draisaitl, it was finally going to be a certainty that Yakupov would play with someone who thinks the game like him. The team opted to make sure the last thing in the minds of the scouts was how poorly Yak struggled with Mark Letestu as his center. Classic.
The Oilers simply wanted Yakupov gone for…reasons. The cost of turning a 1st overall pick into a 3rd rounder is immense. Despite this AND the fact that the Russian winger was at the very least an inexpensive middle 6 forward makes this deal questionable. Even if Yakupov scores 15+ goals next year and the conditional pick becomes a 2nd rounder, the Oilers will have lost the deal.
The prospect the Oil received was 170 pound right shot ECHL center Zach Pochiro. The 22 year old was taken 112th overall in 2013. If he becomes an AHL regular ever it will be a miracle.
This move does two things:
1) It opens up a spot for Versteeg or Puljujarvi
2) It frees Cap space to sign Kris Russell
I hope that the Oilers have a deal in place for Versteeg because Puljujarvi has done nothing in camp that suggests he’s NHL ready.
More imminently, as per Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are on the verge of announcing a 1 year $3.1M deal for Kris Russell.
Russell is a LHD in addition to being not very good. That the Oilers are going down this route shows the desperation level for Peter Chiarelli. He is a drowning man just wildly trying to get to the surface and take a breath of fresh air.
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