WILL HE BE MAROONED?
Oilers’ Patrick Maroon is prime bait for trades, but doesn’t want to leave Edmonton just yet
An underlying matchup Tuesday night when the Buffalo Sabres face the host Edmonton Oilers: Evander Kane vs. Patrick Maroon — Nos. 1 and 2 on TSN’s Trade Bait list.
It’s not what Maroon wants to see. Kane? The way the Sabres are going, maybe he’d die to be set free from that train wreck.
Maroon, who is due to become an unrestricted freeagent in July, badly wants to stay with the Oilers, but if they’re too far out of a Western Conference playoff spot in the few weeks before the Feb. 26 trade deadline, then general manager Peter Chiarelli will be in selling mode.
Centre Mark Letestu, also set to become unrestricted, is another forward Stanley Cup-contending teams will be calling about because he’s versatile, shoots right, can play the power play and the penalty-kill, and wins more than 50 per cent of his draws.
“Obviously, it stinks seeing that (his name so prominent in trade speculation). You don’t want to see it on TSN every day,” said Maroon, who scored a career-high 27 goals last season and is behind last year’s pace but has four goals in his last three games to get to 13, the most of any winger on the Oilers.
Maroon could get to 20 again this year, but while there’s been some talk about a new deal, it’s been simmering conversation — nothing on the front-burner, either a three or a four-year contract, in the $3.75- to $4.5-million range depending on the length of the deal.
“You know the situation I’m in,” said Maroon. “But I’m an Edmonton Oiler, I want to stay here. I love this city, the fans, this group of guys. I think my teammates know that.”
He’s hugely popular in the room and with the fan base. And he’s a good player, with 26 points in 45 games this year.
“I’ve got to block that situation (trade speculation) out,“he said. ”I just want to play hard every night and get this team back on track. This is a really good hockey team, but sometimes, good teams fall apart, and we’re at the situation where we’re close (to turning it around) but we’re not where we should be.
“Pete’s (Chiarelli) given me every opportunity and Todd (head coach McLellan) is playing me with the best player in the world. That’s an opportunity a lot of people can’t say they have.”
But if the Oilers are more than 10 points out in, say, three more weeks, then Chiarelli, who added David Desharnais for Brandon Davidson at last year’s trade deadline, will be a seller not a buyer.
And if he has to move Maroon, who came to the Oilers from Anaheim at the 2016 deadline for a fourthround pick and Martin Gernat, who is now playing overseas, he’ll likely look for a younger prospect winger or someone on an NHL roster right now rather than a draft pick. Who knows,
“I’m an Edmonton Oiler, I want to stay here.” Patrick Maroon, soon to be UFA
maybe the Ducks would want him back?
The Boston Bruins are looking for a top 6 winger, too, but more so on the right side, not on Maroon’s position of left wing. That said, Maroon has seven career goals against Boston in eight games. Trading him will be tricky though. If you’re going to deal a guy who can score 20, get 40 points and is a big body, the GM had better find somebody who can at least put up his numbers. The Oilers haven’t replaced Jordan Eberle’s 20 goals of a year ago. Ryan Strome’s had some good looks, especially against the Canucks on Saturday, but he hasn’t scored in 11 games and has scored seven goals.
Maroon scored at Arizona, at Vegas and had two against Vancouver last Saturday, his first multiplegoal game of the season.
He’s back with McDavid after playing on the second line for a long time. This is the first time all season where he’s scored in three straight games, coming off an eight-game drought. He’s had six-, seven- and eight-game runs with no goals in a streaky season.
“I had four goals in five games earlier (October). In this league, it’s the twogoal nights and the backto-back one-goal nights, though, that you need to produce get 20 goals,” he said.
McLellan said Maroon has been heading to the net with more authority.
“Playing on a different line (McDavid) sometimes refreshes people,” McLellan said. “He’s strung a group of games together and we want him to continue that.”