The Edmonton Oilers, aka, Buffalo Sabres West was putting together a good season before the pause. Unfortunately for them, it ended on a sour note when they didn’t technically reach the playoffs after being eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the play-in round.

It’s difficult to piece together how these two organizations can’t build a winner around two elite centers in Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid, but here we are. Both teams are now in a position to make some big moves in the offseason to finally get over the hump and be annual contenders. It’s possible we see them become trade partners to begin heading in that right direction.

Oilers Offseason Outlook

2020-21 Projected Cap Space (via Cap Friendly): $10.1 million

Key Restricted Free Agents: Ethan Bear, Matt Benning (arbitration-eligible), and Andreas Athanasiou (arbitration-eligible)

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: Mike Smith, Tyler Ennis, Riley Sheahan, and Mike Green

Projected Needs: Defenseman, scoring, and goaltender

1. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | C/W | Age 27 | One-year, $6 million

Let’s start things with the big fish in the former first overall pick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Pulling him out of Edmonton may not be easy or even that likely. However, in the right deal, they may consider it. The 27-year-old only has one more year remaining on his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent. If the Oilers have reservations about giving him another deal, this offseason may be the time to explore his trade value.

Nugent-Hopkins can play on a line with Dylan Cozens and start at center. Then as Cozens comes along, he can transition to the wing.

The most appealing part of RNH game is his ability to impact scoring, as you’ll see below in Micah McCurdy’s impact chart.

 

He’s coming off of back to back 60 point seasons and was nearly a point per game player this year. The Canadian-born forward also graded out as one of the better players on the Oilers in primary shot contributions this season in Corey Sznajder’s tracking data. He was third on the team behind Leon Draisaitl and McDavid in primary shot assists.

As I mentioned, the difficult part is figuring out a package that would make sense to get Nugent-Hopkins out of Edmonton. This isn’t a scenario where Rasmus Ristolainen or Brandon Montour would have a lot of appeal to the Oilers. They need help on their blueline but have a few defenders coming up their system in Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg.

They’re more likely looking for scoring to add in behind Draisaitl and McDavid. They could be interested in Sam Reinhart, but that type of deal doesn’t favor the Sabres. Nugent-Hopkins only has one more year of team control, while Reinhart has at least two restricted-free-agent years remaining.

Therefore, it’s unlikely there’s a deal to be had here with Nugent-Hopkins and the Sabres.

2. Andreas Athanasiou | Winger | Age 26 | RFA (arbitration-eligible)

I’m higher on the idea of acquiring Athanasiou than some. I love his speed and I feel as though he generates more offense than people give him credit for. The Oilers acquired him from the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Trade deadline. However, he may not be back with the Oilers.

He was part of the conversation by Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on The 31 Thoughts podcast that mentioned Athanasiou and Montour as players that may not receive qualifying offers. Combine that with Oilers’ general manager Ken Holland’s comments about Athanasiou after the season:

“We were trying to bring in more offense. Athanasiou’s impact wasn’t as good as I hoped. I’ll assess here over the next six-seven weeks leading into the offseason.”

Anthony and I put together the first Expected Buffalo Faceoff surrounding Athanasiou. You can read more of a breakdown of the player on that piece, linked here. No need to make you read similar things twice.

3. Jesse Puljujarvi | Winger | Age 22 | RFA

Puljujarvi has had his name in trade discussion for over a year now after he requested a trade and went back to Finland to play until a move was worked out. Over the past few months there appeared to be some optimism about the possibility of the Finnish winger returning to the Oilers.

However, Puljujarvi decided to spend another season in Liiga with Karpat. Elliotte Friedman mentioned in his 31 Thoughts article that a trade is still possible after the Oilers thought a signing was close. It should be noted that his one-year extension with Karpat does include an NHL out clause.

Would the Oilers be open to a prospect for prospect swap with Casey Mittelstadt going the other way for Puljujarvi?

Similar to Athanasiou, I already wrote a breakdown of the player on this site. You can find that breakdown here if you missed it.

Data via: Hockeyviz.com and Corey Sznajder

Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports