EDMONTON — As the Edmonton Oilers arrive at the 2023 NHL Draft with just three picks — a second-, a sixth- and a seventh-rounder — we are reminded of the delicate balance between trying to win a Stanley Cup today and filling the organizational funnel for tomorrow.
“I don’t even know if it’s a delicate balance,” said general manager Ken Holland. “It’s like a teeter-totter. One end is way up and one end is way down.”
There is every chance Holland could deal a pick or two at this draft to a team nearer the bottom of the standings, if it brings in a player who can help win a Stanley Cup in 2024.
As Leon Draisaitl said after losing out to Vegas in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, the 2023-24 season is “Cup or bust,” and Holland will carry himself that way at the draft in Nashville.
“Anybody in this situation” would do the same, he said. “We’re trying to get something else now, and the other team is trying to get help with the future.”
So, Holland will head to Nashville with a list of priorities: Move Kailer Yamamoto or Ryan McLeod in a deal that will open cap space and bring more abrasiveness into Edmonton’s top nine; find a way to secure a defensive defenceman who can be an upgrade on Vincent Desharnais; and if he strikes out, pick a prospect-to-be-traded-later with the 56th pick in the draft.
DRAFT PICKS
POTENTIAL ROUND 2 OPTIONS
When your first two picks in the draft are scheduled for No. 56 and No. 184, the playbook says you might be wise to deal the second-rounder for a pair of higher thirds. This is the time to fill the pipeline, and just three weeks ago Edmonton traded its fifth-round pick to the New York Rangers for a six-foot-three, 200-pound right-shot centreman named Jayden Grubbe.
He’s only 20 and ready to turn pro, and didn’t want to sign with the Rangers.
“If he was on the board in the fifth round — if he was a re-entry — our guys felt that they would have used the fifth pick for him. They liked him,” Holland said.
So, they’ve got one prospect signed already. Now, do you package the second-rounder with Yamamoto to rid yourself of $3.1 million and perhaps get back a cheaper, bigger and more rugged right-winger than the five-foot-eight, 155-pound Yamamoto?
Or make the deal even bigger and bring in Travis Konecny from Philly, where Holland has been kicking tires of late.
Holland is open to pretty much anything that will make his club a more formidable playoff foe, with forward depth and defensive prowess at the top of his list. And no prospect is off limits.
He’d listen on Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Desharnais, Markus Niemelainen, Rafael Lavoie, Xavier Bourgault, Matvey Petrov … . There’s no young player who Holland would not sacrifice in the name of cap space or veteran presence who could put his team over the top.
LAST YEAR’S FIRST PICK
Reid Schaefer, the big red-head affectionately nicknamed “Ginger Beef” by Oilers fans due to his six-foot-three, 213-pound frame, was traded to Nashville in the deadline deal that saw Mattias Ekholm become an Oiler.
The previous year, Holland dealt defenceman William Lagesson, a second-rounder and a seventh-rounder to Montreal for defenceman Brett Kulak. Kulak was re-signed last summer to a three-year contract, while Ekholm arrived with a contract that still has three years remaining.
It’s easy to justify those trades when you get good players who help you today — and they become more than just deadline rentals.
“It’s not like we’re just spending them on players for that year — and then they’ve gone,” Holland said.
This year’s first-rounder also went to Nashville in the Ekholm deal, currency that will be looked back on as well spent only if Holland presides over a Stanley Cup parade down Jasper Avenue one day.
ONE BOLD PREDICTION FOR THE DRAFT
Edmonton trades its second, McLeod and Yamamoto to Philadelphia for right-winger Konecny, defenceman Nick Seeler and a third-rounder.