- Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: Haggerty expands on Don Cherry’s comments that the Oilers should look to trade Jordan Eberle.
“You can’t trade (Nail) Yakupov, because nobody’s going to take him,” said Cherry, as per Sportsnet.ca. “(Jordan) Eberle or one of those guys have got to go. It’s a tough deal giving one of (the young players) away, but something’s gotta go.”
Eberle is the type of player that the Bruins are looking for, for their top line. The two teams talked in the summer about Johnny Boychuk, and again before the season started regarding Chris Kelly, who was on the Oilers radar.
The challenge for the Bruins were be meeting the asking price and clearing out enough cap space to take on the $6 million salary cap hit. The Bruins could take on the cap hit if they included Kelly and Matt Bartkowski, along with a draft pick/prospect package. The Oilers need another center. The Bruins also have center prospects in Ryan Spooner and Alex Khokhlachev.
- Bob Stauffer: “Sorry @HackswithHaggs but the Oilers aren’t giving away a 1st line RW for an aging 3rd line C, a 3rd pairing D and a pick. Oilers have some depth on D. If they move out a scoring W it will be for a talented W with size or a good C.” Joe Haggerty: “@Bob_Stauffer Kelly, Bart, Malcolm Subban & 1st would get them a good RW somewhere, Bob. I guess we’ll have to see. Oil has to do something”
- Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal: “If Edmonton makes the decision to trade Eberle owing to its depth on the wings, that’s a deal they only get to make once. The return needs to be someone who solves an immediate problem for a long time, not bit pieces and futures.”
- Renaud Lavoie: Teams are interested in Oilers Nail Yakupov, but are they ready to trade him?
- David Staples: Staples thinks the Oilers should send Leon Draisaitl back to junior or to Europe, and find a center from a team needing to move a contract.
Either that or the Oilers package up a good veteran winger, such as David Perron, and bring in a centre with equivalent talent. That trade is less easy to make, but it’s better than moving Nail Yakupov or Jordan Eberle.
- Daniel Friedman: Friedman would trade Ryan Nugent-Hopkins over Jordan Eberle. RNH’s health is question mark and Eberle has lots of upside too.