Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland has his work cut out for him ahead of the 2023 NHL trade deadline.
Not only are expectations high for a club that boasts the league’s two leading scorers, but Edmonton is right up against the salary cap and Holland could be facing another dollar in, dollar out type of trade deadline.
Will the cap concerns prevent the Oilers from adding an impactful playoff performer? Monetary matters haven’t prevented the rumours from swirling. That’s for sure.
Evander Kane recently joked about being excited for all his great soon-to-be new teammates, poking fun at the plethora of trade speculation in the media that tends to happen at this time of the season.
The team has been tied to several high-profile skaters this year, including San Jose Sharks star blueliner Erik Karlsson, with Edmonton in the market for a puck-moving defenceman.
Connor McDavid acknowledged it’s relatively new for his team to be attached, even loosely, to big names around the trade deadline. McDavid also noted his team has little salary cap space with which to work.
Their cap situation would seemingly limit them to mostly the rental market, however Elliotte Friedman said earlier this month on 32 Thoughts he believes the Oilers are listening to their top players, who’ve said they prefer puck-movers and that management would look into it.
"If this is what McDavid and Draisaitl want, I think if you're the Oilers you have a responsibility to try," Friedman said.
Holland has been in and adapted to copious salary cap and trade deadline scenarios in his quarter century spent as an NHL GM. After years of consistent playoff appearances and annual deadline fine-tuning, his final handful of trade deadlines with the Red Wings were spent as a seller, mostly just acquiring draft picks and future assets while offloading rental players.
In Edmonton, Holland has attempted to build a team around the best player in the game, but carefully navigating the salary cap has been at times a high-wire act, like it has this year.
Here are the acquisitions at or approaching trade deadline Holland has made since joining the franchise…
2020
Holland was hired by the Oilers ahead of the 2019-20 campaign. His initial off-season included signing goaltender Mike Smith in free agency and trading Milan Lucic to Calgary for James Neal. His first trade deadline saw him make four moves.
One was an AHL player swap with Anaheim and one was to send a 2021 fifth-round selection to Ottawa for Tyler Ennis. Holland also made a pair of deals with his former club, the Red Wings: Edmonton added Andreas Athanasiou and Ryan Kuffner in exchange for Sam Gagner and both 2020 and 2021 second-round picks, while getting Mike Green for Kyle Brodziak and a 2020 fourth-round pick in a separate move.
2021
The Oilers were quiet at this deadline, but Holland bolstered the blue line by adding Dmitry Kulikov from New Jersey with a 2022 fourth-round pick going back the other way. Despite finishing second in the North Division that season they were swept by the Jets in the opening round. Kulikov ended up playing only 10 regular-season and three post-season games in an Oiler uniform that year before signing with Minnesota in the off-season.
2022
Holland had his most aggressive deadline with the Oilers just one year ago. On deadline day, he added centre Derick Brassard from the Flyers for a 2023 fourth-round pick in a classic rental player move. The team also acquired defenceman Brett Kulak from Montreal. Kulak ended up signing a four-year deal to stay in Edmonton.
Holland’s most impactful move ahead of the 2022 deadline, however, was when he signed free agent Evander Kane in late January at a discounted and prorated price after the former Sharks winger had his contract terminated by San Jose for violating various league protocols. Kane’s presence helped the team greatly. He registered 22 goals and 39 points in 43 regular-season games with Edmonton, continuing his tear in the playoffs where he ended up leading the post-season with 13 goals despite only playing 15 games before the Oilers were eliminated.
Adding Kane likely wouldn’t have been possible had he cost more money at the time and Holland’s biggest obstacle again this year is budget.
Jesse Puljujarvi could be a player the Oilers move on from. The pending free agent is only 24 and coming off a career year in 2021-22 (36 points in 65 games). With Holland not wanting to allow another team to swoop in and take Puljujarvi for nothing in return, the Swedish winger has not been placed on waivers even though that would alleviate some of the current cap crunch (Puljujarvi's cap hit is $3 million).
Karlsson has a full no-movement clause in his contract, not to mention four years remaining with an AAV of $11.5 million. That blockbuster addition might not be within the realm of realistic possibility, which could mean Holland takes a more strategic and opportunistic approach to facilitating any deals from now until March 3.
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