Oilers fans eye possible trade with Jets’ Trouba asking out
With unsigned, unhappy restricted free agent Jacob Trouba asking for a trade out of Winnipeg because he wants to be a top-four right-side guy, Oilers Nation is clamouring for GM Peter Chiarelli to get him.
The Oilers can’t talk about another team’s player, but some fans are already pitching hard for a Trouba-for-Darnell Nurse deal because the Jets need a young leftshot defenceman, but that seems a non-starter. As coach Todd McLellan said Saturday, “We think Darnell can be a five-tool D-man.”
Never say never on any deals, though. Who saw Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson three months ago?
But the Oilers see Nurse as a top4 guy in short order after just one NHL season. They see him being every bit as good as Trouba in time, only shooting left, not right.
Trouba, playing behind Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers on the right side in Winnipeg, still played 22 minutes a night last year. Coming into Jets’ camp, they were going to have him on the left side with Byfuglien, but he’d rather play his natural right. He’d be a second-pairing guy in Edmonton, giving the Oilers another young rightie with Adam Larsson. But Oilers management loves Nurse’s skating and toughness, feeling he’s only scratched the surface at 21.
Left-shooting Oscar Klefbom for Trouba, who played for McLellan on Team North America at the World Cup, would be taking away the Oilers’ best left-side guy now, too. In terms of speculation, Brandon Davidson, who caught the eye of all the NHL scouts last year, might be more attainable for the Jets along with a forward. But, we’re just spitballing.
The Jets don’t have to do anything with Trouba until Dec. 1. If he’s unsigned by then, he can’t play this season. McLellan played Trouba in place of Aaron Ekblad when he got a concussion. He was the team’s seventh D-man until then. Did he like Trouba? He’s not saying.
NOTHING TO PROVE
McLellan doesn’t think Larsson has to prove anything to Oiler fans after the much-debated Hall trade this summer.
“I don’t think Adam should have any worries. I don’t know how you can compare them. We’re talking a forward and a D -man, a dynamic offensive guy for more of a stayat-home defensive guy ...” said McLellan. “People will watch. Every night they go home, they’ll be their general manager as to, ‘No, I wouldn’t have made that (deal) or yes I would have.’ But that’s the way the business goes.
“Adam is attentive, he asks good questions and seems to have a presence in and around the lockerroom,” said McLellan. “He looks calm on the ice and doesn’t have a jittery part to his game where he panics as a defender, but it’s only Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I’ll need more viewings.”
MINDING THE GAP
McLellan’s main goal this year is to drop the goal differential. The Oilers were minus-42 last year (203 goals for, 245 against, third worst to Vancouver’s minus-52 and Toronto’s minus-48).
“Last season we shaved 43 goals off our difference from 2014-2015 and the task is doing it again,” said McLellan. “We have to repeat it again to be a playoff contender. It’s a pretty big task for goalies, D and forwards. It can come by defending better or more offence. The first shave-off is the easiest, the second the toughest.”
DUO DELAYED
Now that centre Leon Draisaitl and Team Europe have advanced to the World Cup best-of-three final against Canada, he won’t rejoin the team for practices for at least another week. Same with D-man Andrej Sekera.
Dillon Simpson’s been taking Sekera’s spot with Mark Fayne in scrimmages. McLellan says it’s a good news-bad news situation, being down centres like Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the time being.
Several veteran wingers are playing with different pivots but that’s fine with McLellan. “It gives us a chance to look for a third-line centre in our mix if we decide to move one of them to the wing.”
For now, Drake Caggiula, Anton Lander and Mark Letestu are getting centre work with higher-end wingers.