Insider Reveals Oilers' Specific Type of Trade Target for Blueline

Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman & head coach Kris Knoblauch

The Edmonton Oilers have a couple of things to take care of before the trade deadline. And one insider is suggesting that they're looking to make a big splash on defense. Reminiscent of what they did at the 2023 deadline.

In March of that season, the Oilers brought in Mattias Ekholm, who completely transformed the Edmonton blueline, pairing up with—and unleashing—Evan Bouchard, while helping to lead the team to two straight Stanley Cup Finals.

David Pagnotta feels they're looking for that type of player, someone with experience, at this year's deadline, as he explained on the Oilersnation podcast this week.

Somebody kind of "Ekholm Jr."-esque in terms of capability. Somebody in terms of being a shutdown type of guy, a defense-first guy that has a little bit of physicality. I think that's what they wanna do, and also what they've been looking for, for the most part...
That's why I think, if you have your goaltending kind of locked in, and you don't have to concern yourself with it, you can focus exclusively on other areas and I think the blueline is one of them.

Pagnotta feels that the Oilers are set on bringing in that shutdown kind of d-man sometime before the Olympic Break or at least by the trade deadline.

Ekholm's arrival in March of 2023 transformed the Oilers' blueline, allowing everyone to slot in where they should. And with the veteran taking care of the physical stuff, and keeping things clean defensively, his new pairing partner, Bouchard, went from being a 40-point guy to more like a point-per-game producer. Pre-Ekholm, Bouchard had 24 points in 65 games that season. In 17 games with the big Swede at his side, he registered 16 points. And the rest is history.

What blueliners could the Oilers be looking to add by the deadline?

So what names could we be looking at as targets to fill that "Ekholm-Jr." type of description? We know that Colton Parayko was recently linked to Edmonton, among other suitors, courtesy insider Chris Johnston.

Another prime trade candidate who could potentially fill that role is Jamie Oleksiak. The Big Rig is 33 and a pending UFA, and the Seattle Kraken are likely to make the 6-foot-7 d-man a big name at the deadline.