Yesterday was a busy day for Bob Stauffer and the listeners of Oilers Now. The talk was all about who the Oilers should pick at 4th overall at this summer’s NHL Entry Draft, which one of the $6M men could get traded, and a multitude of trade scenarios to which I am going to discuss below.

There are a few points of view when talking about the Oilers’ first rounder this year.

• Keep it and draft one of Matthew Tkachuk or Pierre-Luc Dubois.
• Trade down and draft one of Logan Brown or Olli Juolevi.
• Trade it outright or package it with a roster player for an upgrade on the blueline.

Stauffer said he’d talked to two coaches in the OHL and one described Matthew Tkachuk as a better prospect than Dylan Strome right now, whilst the other said Tkachuk is comparable to a 6’2″ version of Brendan Gallagher or Brad Marchand. Kosmic did a little profile of him here.

I think Bob mentioned this like 5 or 6 times over the entire show which sort of leads me to believe that either he was told to sell those two players to the listeners or there wasn’t anything else to talk about regarding Tkachuk or Dubois… 

Now, I’ve definitely got time for a player like that. To me, that sort of player screams Corey Perry and boy do the Oilers need someone in that mold. It’s been a long time since the team had a goal-scoring agitator who could think the game on an NHL level.

But there are two things that should be discussed when it comes to the left-winger.

• He’s a left shot and the Oilers are pretty stocked with those.
• He’s putting up big numbers this season playing alongside Mitch Marner who himself is racking up McDavid-like stats… You don’t want to get caught in the Sam Gagner trap again.

The other player discussed at no.4 was Pierre-Luc Dubois and the comparable for him was Jamie Benn. Kosmic also did a write-up on PLD here.

The Oilers could also trade down. The Vancouver Canucks are supposedly high on the Dubois kid and they hold the #5 pick. Personally I don’t see a lot on the Canucks roster or in their system that might be available. Chris Tanev and Brock Boeser are probably the only two guys there.

Bob and Brenden Ullrich discussed a scenario near the end of Oilers Now that went like this:

Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, and the Penguins 1st round pick
for
Mark Fayne and the Oilers 1st round pick

This would allow the Leafs to pick their homeboy, Matthew Tkachuk, the Oilers an upgrade on defense, and give Edmonton a good face-off man in the 3C hole. Chiarelli could then take one of their left-handed shooters and move him to the Islanders for Travis Hamonic.

In the end the proposed deal might look like this:

Tyler Bozak, Travis Hamonic, and the Pens 1st rounder
for
Mark Fayne, Jake Gardiner, and the Oilers 1st rounder.

Sounds okay to me as it would fill some holes on the roster with veteran players. Bozak has a no-trade clause and who knows if he’d waive it to go to Edmonton. But I’m of the opinion that the team is still too young and lacks effective impact veterans to take this team to where it needs to go.

What about trading the 4th overall pick outright for a veteran dman?

Well the pick on its own has a lot of value. Not as much as the first three but it’s certainly more valuable than Hamonic, Vatanen, or Barrie. But maybe the Oilers would go for it if say they were dealing with Anaheim and the Ducks included their first rounder and a prospect like Jacob Larsson or Brandon Montour with Vatanen or if Colorado included their first rounder (10th overall) with Barrie… Ya never know what teams are thinking right? Isles could very well offer their first and Hamonic for the 4th overall and Brandon Davidson.

Anyways, those were some draft day ideas floating around on Oilers Now yesterday. Someone did call in and ask about Justin Faulk out of Carolina for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Which I think sounds pretty decent but Stauffer thought the Hurricanes would have to add to that. How much I wonder? Could left-winger Sebastian Aho be added to that deal to make it fair?

My Concluding Thoughts…

• If the Oilers are in dire need of character players, could they see what’s available in the 2nd or 3rd rounds and use their 4th overall pick to take Olli Juolevi and not Logan Brown.
• Logan Brown to me sounds a bit too much like Joe Colborne and in my opinion if you’re going to be a big guy that isn’t physical, you’d better be a damned good goal scorer or playmaker.
• Maybe some guys like Will Bitten, Carl Grundstrom, or Nathan Bastien could be the character players Edmonton could find use for in 3-4 years.
• I’d prefer the team trade down myself and find a way to get a dman like Charlie McAvoy or Dante Fabbro plus add more assets like 2nd round picks or 3rd round picks. The prospect cupboard is dusty and the more bullets the Oilers have, the better the odds at finding players. Developed correctly, these two right-handed dmen could have wonderful careers for the Oilers.
• The lack of right-handed shooting wingers concerns me. Eberle has a muffin of a one-timer. They need to address this issue in the summer. With McDavid running the PP it was over 20% successful and imagine how much more success they’d have on it if they had a right-handed shooter on the left wall AND a dman who could fire the pill.
• A caller named Brad called in and made his case for not trading any of the $6M dollar men because there’s no way the Oilers could replace their production and the team has enough trouble scoring as it is. He may have a point.
• Yakupov’s trade return is going to be so bad right now that the best course of action is to keep him and play him with 97 then trade him when his value has increased. If Drouin can come back and perform the way he is then I believe Yak can do it too.

What are your thoughts on the topic du jour? Let me know in the comments below! Three Points Dave has a new vlog out talking about the draft lottery! Check it out and please subscribe to our Youtube channel!