{"id":480845,"date":"2026-02-15T03:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480845\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T03:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:38:09","slug":"oilers-not-likely-to-target-defense-at-trade-deadline-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480845\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers Not Likely To Target Defense At Trade Deadline \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers are still sorting out their targets with the Trade Deadline rapidly approaching. As it nears, it\u2019s becoming clear that defense won\u2019t be high on the Oilers\u2019 list, per hockey insider Frank Seravalli on The Kevin Karius Show<\/a>. Instead, the Oilers will prefer to let their defense grow with the players already in their depth chart.<\/p>\n

Edmonton brought in third-pair defender Spencer Stastney<\/a> with a trade in December<\/a>. He has one goal and a minus-seven in 27 games with the Oilers, after starting the year with nine points and a minus-one in 30 games with the Nashville Predators. Despite the lackluster stat line, Stastney has earned consistent ice time next to Ty Emberson<\/a>. The Oilers also carry Alec Regula<\/a>, who has three points and a minus-16 in 29 games, on the NHL roster.<\/p>\n

The Oilers could also look towards Cam Dineen<\/a> and Riley Stillman<\/a> in the AHL if they needed to fill a roster spot. Their depth of fringe NHL-defensemen is rich while Edmonton\u2019s lack of cap space \u2013 only a projected $2.89MM on deadline day per Puckpedia<\/a> \u2013 likely prices them out of acquiring a top-four talent. That will steer Edmonton\u2019s focus away from the blue-line as they look to add this Deadline season.<\/p>\n

The decision to not add to the defense depth chart will keep a path clear for defense prospect Paul Fischer<\/a>, who was nominated for the NCAA\u2019s Hobey Baker Award for his performance at the University of Notre Dame this season. Fischer has 18 points in 25 games. He has been heavily used all season long and brings an overwhelming physicality and hard-worked defense to the lineup. The 21 year old could be a candidate to sign his entry-level contract when his junior year of college concludes this Spring.<\/p>\n

The Oilers also have Asher Barnett<\/a> performing well for the University of Michigan. The two-way, puck-moving defender has racked up 14 points in 29 games behind an electric Wolverines offense this season. Barnett was a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers are still sorting out their targets with the Trade Deadline rapidly approaching. As it nears,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3275,575,85],"class_list":["post-480845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}