Open market beckons Oilers
No immediate help from draft
NEWARK, N.J. — If he’d had his way, Edmonton Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish would have left the National Hockey League entry draft with some immediate help for his roster, as well as some prospects for the seasons to come.
Instead, he had to satisfy himself with the selection of defenceman Darnell Nurse plus more assets.
Unable to strike a deal for a roster player, the Oilers kept their seventh pick in the first round, selecting Nurse, a wellspoken, hard-hitting product of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
“I’m learning these trades and deals are the end result of a lot of legwork. My deal rate per spoken word is extremely low right now,” said MacTavish after Sunday’s proceedings at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
The Oilers are in immediate need of more size, more sandpaper for the third and fourth lines, as well as experienced puck-movers on the defence.
Nurse could very well be a core player in the future, but he won’t be rushed onto the roster this fall, which is why MacTavish’s attentions will now turn to free agency.
The free-agent market opens on Friday.
“I said that I want to help the club as much as I can (and) we did weigh a lot of different things,” MacTavish continued.
“We have to support the group we have here right now, and I’m going to be doing everything I can to support that group, but I’m not going to do something that I think is outside of our best interest going forward.”
“I talked about having my eyes firmly on the future and I think that with that No. 7 pick, that helps in that regard but there weren’t a lot of deals made in the course of the few days here, but I think we’re going to continue to talk, and hopefully we can do something.”
MacTavish didn’t want to get into specific deals he may have had on the table, but he did have conversations with Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren on the draft floor. There had been a lot of rumblings that the Oilers were in play for defenceman Braydon Coburn, who may be moved as the Flyers try and reduce their salary cap.
“My initial thought is that you generally default to no deal rather than a bad deal,” MacTavish concluded. “I know there’s going to be more deals made. We’re hopeful we can get some things done. I may not be as optimistic, but I’m still very hopeful.
“Coming in here, I felt like we could use those second-round picks to help our team and that didn’t turn out to be the case. Now I will be willing to move pieces.”