{"id":506645,"date":"2026-03-01T04:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506645\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T04:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:22:07","slug":"oilers-looking-at-skaters-not-goalies-ahead-of-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/506645\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers looking at skaters, not goalies ahead of deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> are prioritizing skaters over goaltending as they approach next week’s trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The Oilers sit in third in the Pacific Division, just three points ahead of the Seattle Kraken, who hold the final wild-card spot in the West. But with a loss to the Sharks on Saturday and a 1-2 record out of the Olympic break, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the team is looking to add a forward or a defenceman.<\/p>\n

One name mentioned was the Maple Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a>, whom Friedman believes is “on the Oilers’ radar”.<\/p>\n

“From what I’ve heard, I think Edmonton is looking at two possibilities: a defenceman who can play the right side, OEL has done that before, or potentially a third centre, especially if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins stays on the wing,” Friedman said on Hockey Night in Canada’s Saturday Headlines segment. “They’ve got to move on from (Andrew) Mangiapane, but those are, I think, the two positions that Edmonton is considering shoring up.”<\/p>\n

Ekman-Larsson has enjoyed a solid season with the Maple Leafs, logging eight goals and 25 assists in 59 games, and represented Team Sweden at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old is under contract for two more seasons after this one with an average-annual value of $3.5 million, and despite being a left-shot, often plays on the right side with Toronto.<\/p>\n

The Oilers currently have just $10,508 in cap space and $12,009 in deadline cap space, per PuckPedia<\/a>, meaning some money would need to go out in order to add to the roster.<\/p>\n

Mangiapane makes $3.6 million for this season and next, far too rich for a struggling player on a cap-strapped team. The 29-year-old signed in Edmonton last off-season, and he’s produced just seven goals and seven assists this year while receiving a handful of healthy scratches.<\/p>\n

Friedman also added that he doesn’t believe the Oilers will look to add a goalie despite the recent struggles from Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram.<\/p>\n

“No, I don’t think so. They’ve already made their move,” Friedman replied when asked if the team will target a netminder. “I think they’re either looking at D or 3C”.<\/p>\n

Jarry, of course, was acquired on Dec. 12 from the Penguins in exchange for goalie Stuart Skinner. <\/p>\n

But in 12 contests with Edmonton, Jarry has posted a 3.85 goals-against average and an .864 save percentage. Ingram, meanwhile, owns a 2.75 GAA and a .894 save percentage in 16 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers are prioritizing skaters over goaltending as they approach next week’s trade deadline. The Oilers sit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-506645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}