Edmonton Oilers Trade Targets
Daniel Nugent-Brown of The Athletic: With a likely 7-3-1 alignment for protection, the Edmonton Oilers may have some trade options at their disposal. Several teams have some significant players they will wind up exposing. Boston has Nick Ritchie and Jeremy Lauzon among others. Anaheim is rumored to be trading Jakob Silfverberg and maybe even Rickard Rakell.
Colorado wants to try and move Erik Johnson. With Cale Makar needing a deal, Joe Sakic may need to make a trade. Could Nazem Kadri be exposed (1 year, $4.5 million)? That’s possible too.
Columbus still wants to trade one of their goaltenders. Minnesota has an excess of players with no-movement clauses. Mathew Dumba and Ryan Hartman could be available via trade.
Branden Dillon could be an interesting target from Washington. Tampa Bay is tight against the cap and a team to watch as well. After that, Calle Jarnkrok, a Holland draft pick from Detroit, could be on the table. Does Edmonton consider players like Marcus Pettersson or Jason Zucker possibly?
The Columbus Blue Jackets Expansion Draft Plan?
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: Columbus has one of the easier expansion draft plans out there. The Blue Jackets tweaking that plan remains possible. One of the names tossed around is Gustav Nyquist. He missed all season due to shoulder surgery and could easily be dangled.
There is one other player to consider. Max Domi. Domi will miss at least the first month of this upcoming season due to shoulder surgery. The winger underperformed in Columbus and could easily be left out there as well. The Blue Jackets have options here.
One player that should be fun to look at next year is Gregory Hofmann. Eventually, that one-year, one-way deal will get done. It is still believed to be for an AAV of $900,000. The bigger question will be where does Hofmann slot in. Does he suddenly get a top-six role? It would not be all that surprising now given Columbus’ tendency to do a full rebuild.