Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

From NHLTradeRumors.me

Stan Sweeney recently published a blog post claiming the three teams he could see being in on Seth Jones, the St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Edmonton Oilers. Here’s his reasoning as to why he thinks the Oilers could be in the Jones sweepstakes,

• Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers are a team to look out for as general manager Ken Holland wants to make a splash this offseason and upgrade his hockey club. It’s worth noting Jones has a 10-team no-trade list, however with his brother on the Oilers, there’s a good chance he would accept a deal. The Blue Jackets want a top-line center for Jones, would a sign-and-trade for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins be enough (LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: I can’t see the Oilers getting in on Jones unless they were willing to part with a package of players that includes Jesse Puljujarvi, Evan Bouchard, and at least a first round draft pick. 

Now, Sweeney’s suggestion of a sign-and-trade involving Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is quite intriguing. I can’t recall the last S&T deal that took place in the NHL, can you? It seems to be more of an NBA thing, no?

That said, would that be something the Oilers would want to do? What I mean is that they’d be acquiring a defenseman that has already stated publicly that his intentions are to explore unrestricted free agency and his brother won’t be part of the club for much longer from what I understand. 

Yesterday on Oilers Now, host Bob Stauffer and Sportsnet’s Mark Spector were talking about Jones heading to Toronto for William Nylander plus. What caught my ear is that Stauffer also tossed in that he’d heard that Jones might want to play in a larger hockey market, basically intimating Toronto or Montreal, but maybe subtly leaving out Edmonton on purpose?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2HmQCj5k3o

From NHLRumors.com

Michael Russo of The Athletic: An offseason to-do list for Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin.

• Re-sign Kirill Kaprizov, Kevin Fiala and Joel Eriksson Ek – All three are 24 and pending RFAs. Fiala and Eriksson Ek are arbitration eligible. A bridge deal for Kaprizov doesn’t make much sense.
• Deal with the Zach Parise situation – Parise is 36-years old with four years left on his contract at $7.5 million per season. Could they find a trade partner?
• Deal with the Seattle expansion draft – Depending on which route the Wild go (7-3-1 or eight skaters – and if nobody waives their NMC), they could lose one of Matt Dumba, Carson Soucy, Jordan Greenway, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman, Nico Sturm, Victor Rask, Kaapo Kahkonen or Cam Talbot.
• To get a center or not? – The Wild need a center or two if they want to be a contender. Do they go after Jack Eichel or Evgeny Kuznetsov? The UFA market has Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Derek Stepan.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ah, I can remember the days when Oilers fans would argue endlessly about who the club was going to take with the 16th ov pick in the 2015 NHL entry draft. You know, the one they flipped in a package for Griffin Reinhart and it turned into Mat Barzal… Well, it’s relevant here because they wanted Joel Eriksson-Ek… It doesn’t matter anyhow, even if they would’ve selected him, there was no way the fanbase was going to wait five or six years for him to develop into the player he has… 

With regards to a team doing a fine job of waiting for a prospect, the Wild’s patience paid off in spades with Kirill Kaprizov. He was electrifying to watch in that series against Vegas. He’s going to be a superstar in this league and the kind of player that will make Wild fans forget all about how good Marian Gaborik was. They’d best lock him up for max-term or live to regret it.

Since I’ve got all offseason to wonder what kind of moves Ken Holland is going to make for the Oilers, let’s talk about one I’ve been contemplating. That being, will he target some of the teams who are in a spot of bother with their expansion draft list like Minnesota. 

If the Wild cannot get any of the players on their roster with NMCs to waive them, they’re going to lose a really good player for nothing. 

If I’m Edmonton, I’d be calling about Ryan Hartman because surely he’s one of those players who Minny could lose without getting creative and the Oilers need heart and soul players with no fear in their bottom-six. Seriously, this guy sticks up for his teammates and takes on all comers, he’d be a fan favorite in no time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp7KmBujqvI

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