On the Edmonton Oilers …
Jonathan Willis of Sportsnet: Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli will continue to rework the Oilers roster this offseason. One key question for him will be if he continues his trend of trading “young, gifted forwards,” like he did in Boston – Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin. Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have been in the rumor mill, and will likely come up again. Nail Yakupov appears to be on his way out.
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 690 on the Oilers and the ‘culture change’ that could be coming for them.
“Well, I think they’re going to a good piece, a big piece, maybe more than that. There’s always been the rumblings of Jordan Eberle, and those kind of settled over the course of this season, particularly during that stretch where he was magical with Connor McDavid. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins then became the more popular target.
“There have been whispers all along of the potential of, say, Taylor Hall. For me, that’s a stretch. I know when I suggested Taylor Hall to be part of the problem – I think it was early last season, or just prior to the start of the season after Dallas Eakins and everyone got pushed out of there – there was just a groundswell of reaction to that. Many powerful people around Taylor Hall came to his defense.
“I think that for the most part he had a real good year. Things tailed off for him in the second half. But when I approached the Edmonton Oilers near the trade deadline – and we’re talking about not just Peter Chiarelli, but those above him – and asked, ‘Okay, we’re putting this list together going into deadline day. We know about Eberle. We know about the possibility of Nugent-Hopkins,’ even though there was injury in play at that point. ‘Is it conceivable that Taylor Hall could be a moveable piece, if not at the deadline, then perhaps at the summer.’
“And the message that I got back was, ‘Look. There’s one untouchable and his name is Connor McDavid. The next on that list is Taylor Hall being close to untouchable.’