On the Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets …
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: This year’s draft basically begins at No. 4, as the Maple Leafs, Jets, and Blue Jackets will select one of Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljuvari.
Will Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli put the No. 4 pick in a package to see if Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin will listen to an offer for P.K. Subban?
Matheson makes a package of the No. 4 pick, Leon Draisaitl and Oscar Klefbom for Subban and the No. 9 pick. At No. 9, the Oilers could be in a position to draft one of the top three defensemen – Mikhail Sergachev, Olli Juolevi or Jakub Chychrun.
Teams covet Draisaitl over Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
If the Canadiens were to trade Subban, they would need a defenseman back in any deal. The Oilers are not trading Darnell Nurse.
At No. 4, the Canadiens could then draft French-Canadian Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Another option for the Oilers could be the right-handed Travis Hamonic. The Oilers could offer up center Nugent-Hopkins or right winger Jordan Eberle.
Chiarelli may be more inclined to keep Eberle as they are deeper up the middle as opposed to right wing. The Islanders could be losing right winger Kyle Okposo to free agency, so they may prefer Eberle over Nugent-Hopkins.
Hamonic will have a $3.8 million cap hit for the next four years. Eberle is at $6 million a year, so Islanders GM Garth Snow may need the Oilers to take back another contract – maybe Nikolai Kulemin and his $4.1 million cap hit through 2017-18. The Islanders may have to retain some of Kulemin’s salary in that scenario.
Matheson suggests the idea of the Oilers signing Okposo to a deal around $6 million a season.
Matheson suggests trading defenseman Mark Fayne (two years left at a $3.5 million cap hit) for Bryan Bickell (one year left at $4 million).
Matheson suggest trading winger Nail Yakupov to the Hurricanes. Could the Oilers get a top-end prospect and a draft pick for him? The Hurricanes do have two second round picks. The Oilers could look at 2015 fourth round pick Nicolas Roy.
Would the Blue Jackets offer the No. 3 pick and a prospect for Nugent-Hopkins? The Blue Jackets would like trade the contracts of Scott Hartnell (three years left at $4.75 million) and Fedor Tyutin (two years left at $4.5 million). Both Hartnell and Tyutin have no-movement clauses.
Some think that Stars pending UFA defensman Jason Demers could be an Oilers target.
The Red Wings could use the size of pending UFA winger Troy Brouwer.