Holland may target his former team for help before deadline
LOS ANGELES All’s Quiet on the Western Front ... for now.
While Oilers GM Ken Holland has a roster of scouts and lieutenants here to bounce ideas off with the NHL trade deadline today (1 p.m. MT), there were no player movements Sunday with the injury-riddled Oilers facing the Los Angeles Kings.
“I know Kenny and his staff are looking at a lot of different options,” said coach Dave Tippett. “He said it best the other day when he said if he can help us in any way, he’ll do it.”
It should be noted the Detroit Red Wings scratched two of Holland’s former players, speedy winger Andreas Athanasiou and defenceman Mike Green, for Sunday’s game against the Calgary Flames.
Asset management, and certainly Holland is looking at both guys; Green as a rental, Athanasiou more of a trade but would he give up a conditional first-round pick?
Athanasiou likes to carry the puck though and Connor Mcdavid needs more of a finisher.
Holland hustled into the media room 90 minutes before puck drop, his game face on and sat at a table with his staff, everybody leaning in as he appeared to lay out a trade offer. If he dealt with Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman, nobody would be surprised.
“In my experience it gets more unsettling when you’re a seller,” said Tippett. “You have a lot of people nervous about what might happen and that’s not our case. I don’t think anybody’s sitting in our room wondering if they’re getting traded away.”
A player might, though, with the Oilers tight cap room.
Without going through the entire NHL Guide and Record Book for names, feel free to look at these ones as possibles: centres Jean-gabriel Pageau and Vlad Namestnikov (Ottawa), winger Trevor Lewis (Los Angeles), winger Tyler Ennis (Ottawa), winger Conor Sheary (Buffalo), winger Patrick Marleau (San Jose), centre Derek Grant (Anaheim), centre Nick Cousins (Montreal).
Ennis and Namestnikov were healthy scratches Saturday to guard against injury, awaiting a deal somewhere. But Sheary played for Buffalo on Sunday, Cousins with Montreal on Saturday, Marleau for the Sharks on Sunday.
Pageau would be a good add because he’s fast, he’s a right-shot centre, and he is a very good PK guy. But Holland says he’s not likely giving up a first-rounder and a prospect for a rental, but he might with a rider depending on making the post-season.
One thing’s for sure, while the Oilers have a line for Leon Draisaitl now, Mcdavid doesn’t have any regular folk on his wings and he is the captain.
Zack Kassian is on right wing when he gets back from his suspension, but nobody on the left side with speed and the ability to be a 25-30 goal-scorer. Mcdavid says he’s not front and centre on anybody the Oilers would be considering, but it seems inconceivable Holland wouldn’t ask his captain for a player’s opinion on anybody he might acquire.
“There’s not too much of that. He’s the GM and makes those calls,” Mcdavid said.
“It’s no secret the guys who are out there, the media’s covering that pretty well. I’m leaving it (trades) up to the GM.
“I know one thing’s fun to be playing games now. In past years, we’d be playing games where the points didn’t matter and we’d be planning our summer trips.”
BACKING UP MOVING VAN
The Kings, in a major rebuild, have unloaded Tyler Toffoli,
Alec Martinez — who scored the Cup-winning goal in 2014 — and banger Kyle Clifford this month and will be dealing bottom six forward Lewis (two Cup rings) Monday.
“I’m no dummy, I knew it was coming,” said Martinez, who knows the old gang that celebrated the Cup wins in 2012 and 2014 was moving on except for Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick and Dustin Brown.
The Kings have retrieved three second-round picks, two thirds, Northeastern University star centre Tyler Madden and two bottom-six wingers in Trevor Moore (Toronto) and Tim Schaller (Vancouver) in all the deals.
Lewis should get them another third- or fourth-rounder. Schaller, whose US$1.9 million contract they had to take, was on waivers Sunday, however, so he doesn’t fit long-term.
The Kings have 11 picks in this June’s draft in Montreal — a first, three seconds ( Vancouver, Vegas and their own), two thirds and two fourths, so eight picks in the first 124 players.
They also have arguably the best pool of prospects; centre Alex Turcotte (U of Wisconsin), left-winger Arthur Kaliyev (Hamilton, 93 goals in his last
120 games), left-winger Samuel Fagemo (Sweden), centre Gabe Vilard (Kings rookie), centre Rasmus Kupari (Ontario Reign), defenceman Tobias Bjornfot (Ontario Reign).
THIS ’N THAT
With the Oilers in Vegas on Wednesday, the Golden Knights are looking for another D-man along with Martinez and have targeted Chicago’s Eric Gustafsson, the one-time Oilers draftee. ... The pride of Irma, Wild D-man Carson Soucy, scored against the Oilers on Friday but he ran into an Edmonton player after the goal in the second period and is out a month with an upper-body issue . ... The Oilers farm club in Bakersfield is running on fumes, winless in seven after blowing a 4-0 lead and losing in OT to Colorado on Saturday. They’re fielding a lineup of AHL/ECHL players right now.