NHL Trade Rumours: Three Teams Who Should Trade For Jake DeBrusk

Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers make a lot of sense for Jake DeBrusk for a couple of reasons. First, his father Louie played in Edmonton for the first half of his career, and the Alberta capital is Jake’s hometown as well. He even played his Junior hockey just down the highway in Red Deer.

Also, with Kailer Yamamoto struggling to produce offence this season, he has five points in 20 games, the Oilers could use one more top six winger. DeBrusk hasn’t produced at his best this season either, but what better motivation does a player need than being put on a line with Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

DeBrusk would just need to battle consistently and drive the net to bang in rebounds and finish off Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl’s terrific setups. It would be a perfect spot for DeBrusk to get back to his offensive production of a couple years ago.

The problem is cap space. The Oilers are already up against it and would need to move out almost as much as they would take in. DeBrusk’s cap hit is $3.675 so the Oilers would need to move out about $3 million to make it work.

The only player making more than $3 million that the Oilers would even consider parting with is Zach Kassian. But, would the Bruins want anything to do with his $3.2 million cap hit and three years of term remaining? No, they would not.

The only way this trade works out financially is if the Oilers can convince the Bruins to retain salary, and take on Kyle Turris and his $1.2 million cap hit. While the Oilers will surely be interested in a 25 year old hometown boy who scored 27 goals not long ago, their finances will make it almost impossible.