Trade Rumors: Where Could Edmonton Go For Goaltending?
The Oilers are digging themselves into a hole, and they may find it a bit difficult to climb out of it. Injuries are plaguing the Edmonton team, and their 2-6-1 record already has them pretty buried in a power house of a division.
The Oilers are in need of some help in net, I think we all know that by now. The trade talks with Buffalo over Ryan Miller quickly evaporated, and now we’re left wondering what Craig MacTavish is going to do. I think we can all agree that Devan Dubnyk is not the answer for the Oilers, and he’s been given more than an sufficient amount of time to prove that he can hold down the fort.
So where could MacTavish go for help in net this season? There are a good number of number one goalies that will be hitting the free agent market next summer, but being in need of a goalie now, this early into a young season, could make for a few moves to get pieces to fall where they need to be for a team to be successful.
The goalie market seems to be really steep at the moment, which doesn’t seem to make much sense to me knowing that so many goalies will be hitting the market this summer, and the skill level that teams have behind those goalies, teams haven’t been willing to sell their goalies cheap. Cory Schneider was worth a top 10 pick in the draft this summer, so what could you get out of a proven full time starter like Ryan Miller or Jaroslav Halak?
Edmonton has plenty of options that they could investigate, starting in Anaheim. Jonas Hiller will be a free agent at the end of the season, and he’s backed up by one of the league’s better goalies last season in Viktor Fasth. It would be smart for Anaheim to move Hiller before the summer, but the Ducks might not have any interest in moving him prior to the trade deadline.
Hiller played in 26 games last season and owned a record of 15-6-4. Hiller’s goals against average was 2.36, and his save percentage was .913%. Again the asking price is probably going to be high for a proven number one goalie, but it’s going to be significantly lower with Hiller than someone like Miller.
The St. Louis Blues have shown interest in moving Jaroslav Halak, who is set to become a free agent at the end of the year, but the Blues are off to quite a hot start, and Halak has played great. The Blues have a ton of depth in net, behind Halak is Brian Elliott, who only two seasons ago posted a goals against average of 1.56, and a save percentage of .940%, with nine shutouts. Halak will likely carry a hefty price tag this offseason, and will likely be worth a handful if the Blues do decide to move him.
The Oilers have options this season with the amount of talent that will be let go at the end of the season, the only problem they face now, is finding a team that would be willing to give up one of their suitable goalies up for a price that both sides could live with. That’s the speed bump they’re going to have to over come, Nail Yakupov is only worth so much, and the Oilers need help on the blue line as well. A goalie won’t fix everything in Edmonton, but it’s a good place to start.