The Edmonton Oilers have a few needs they’d like to fill before the NHL Trade Deadline. The priority will be a top-four defenseman and potentially a depth goaltender. In a perfect world, the Oilers might add a reliable forward with size and grit in the bottom six. Unfortunately, the latter can’t happen until the organization deals with another issue first — they have a surplus of forwards and insufficient space.
Before the holiday break, the Oilers were cooking. They’re one of the hottest teams in the NHL, and their injured forwards are starting to return. Players are being juggled around to make things work, but useful pieces are starting to sit. Specifically, Derek Ryan has been and will be a healthy scratch on Saturday, but he’s done nothing wrong. A solid faceoff guy and two-way depth piece, Ryan is only out because the alternative is sitting someone like Connor Brown, Corey Perry, Mattias Janmark, Kasperi Kapanen, Vasily Podkolzin, or Jeff Skinner. Head coach Kris Knoblauch is unlikely to do that.
The coach said, “I see the group of 13 we have right now, and everyone brings something that’s very valuable to our team. I wouldn’t want to lose anybody. We got some decisions to make, but right now, I can’t think of our team wanting to risk losing anybody.”
The coach said, “I see the group of 13 we have right now, and everyone brings something that’s very valuable to our team. I wouldn’t want to lose anybody. We got some decisions to make, but right now, I can’t think of our team wanting to risk losing anybody.”
