On the Edmonton Oilers …
Allan Mitchell on Lowetide.ca: The Oilers need to acquire puck moving defenseman (left or right handed), a winger or two, and a backup goaltender.
Assets the Oilers could move out to acquire their needs.
First-round pick – currently ninth overall. A draft pick in this area in the past couple seasons has been in a package that netted the Flames Dougie Hamilton and Travis Hamonic.
Trading or buying out defenseman Andrej Sekera – He carries a $3.89 million salary cap hit.
Oscar Klefbom – Has a good contract but he’s had surgery and may not move because of it.
Teams could be interested in Matt Benning.
Ryan Strome could cost around $3 million to re-sign. A team could be interested in a right-handed center.
If Zack Kassian is a fourth line forward, that would be expensive. Not certain on what kind of value Kassian has.
Anton Slepyshev may not be back next season.
On the St. Louis Blues …
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: The Blues traded Paul Stastny at the deadline despite being in the playoff race. They came close but missed the playoffs, and if they were to have snuck in the playoffs, they would have faced the Nashville Predators.
“The thing that I think about the most is, the potential trades that were there, were they worth two of our top prospects?” Armstrong said. “I didn’t think so at the time. I still don’t think so today. But all I know is it sucks sitting here today — it really does. So now, how would I have been if we had moved two of our top prospects for a guy and be sitting here in two weeks? That would probably have sucked more.”
The Blues did have trade talks involving Matt Hoffman and Max Pacioretty. It would have likely cost them two prospects – possibly one of Tage Thompson, Klim Kostin, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou and someone like Sammy Blais.
The Blues have been okay with moving one of their top prospects if it’s for the deal.
They will also have the salary cap space this offseason to take on salary in a trade or get involved in the free agent market. They’ll currently have over $12 million in cap space (18 players under contract), and that is before the cap goes up.
Pending RFAs include Joel Edmundson, Robby Fabbri and Jordan Schmaltz.
Kyle Brodziak is an unrestricted free agent.
