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The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> are likely desperate to make a major move or two ahead of the trade deadline. After reaching the Stanley Cup finals in each of the last two seasons, the team is now barely hanging on to a playoff spot. Despite still having superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers have seemingly been overtaken in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n A strong playoff push, however, could still happen. Nevertheless, reinforcements in the trade market are likely needed for this to occur. After all, Edmonton\u2019s defense and goalkeeping have been a major issue<\/a> throughout the 2025-26 campaign. The team has posted the seventh-worst goals per game allowed average in the league (3.33), the seventh-worst penalty kill rate (76.9%), and the fifth-lowest goalie save percentage (.877%).<\/p>\n Because of this, the Oilers have been linked with a series of defensemen and goalies in recent days. NHL insider Elliott Friedman has now provided a fairly disappointing update on the situation. Speaking on his most recent 32 Thoughts podcast, the reporter poured cold water on Edmonton\u2019s reported interest in St. Louis Blues<\/a> goaltender Jordan Binnington.<\/p>\n Friedman was asked specifically by co-host Kyle Bukauskas if he believes the Oilers would land Binnington. \u201cI don\u2019t,\u201d replied Friedman<\/a>. \u201cI think Edmonton is going to make its bed with its goaltending. It\u2019s done. They\u2019re looking for a D who can play on the right side or a 3C, especially if [Ryan] Nugent-Hopkins is going to stay on the wing. I heard those are the spots they\u2019re really looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n Edmonton Oilers Need Teams to Retain Player Salaries in Trades GettyThe Oilers would love to bring in St. Louis Blues star Justin Faulk.<\/p>\n While they are looking to make moves in the coming days, the Oilers are essentially handcuffed due to financial restrictions. According to PuckPedia.com<\/a>, Edmonton has the lowest current cap space among all NHL teams. They are currently the only club to have less than $250,000 to work with.<\/p>\n Friedman hinted that this problem has hindered the team\u2019s interest in fellow Blues star Justin Faulk. The Oilers would love to acquire the veteran blueliner, but would need St. Louis to retain a significant chunk of his salary. Faulk has one more year remaining on his $6.5 million AAV<\/a> deal with the Blues. A similar situation involving Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has also been discussed.<\/p>\n Because of these financial woes, Edmonton will likely only be able to land either a defenseman or a center before March 6. This comes as ESPN\u2019s Arda Ocal<\/a> specifically named the Oilers as one of the top NHL clubs desperately needing to make a major trade. Ocal also pointed to Edmonton\u2019s need for a new goalie despite previously grabbing Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oilers Should Opt to Strengthen Defense in Trade Market<\/p>\n With goaltending potentially off the table, the Oilers should prioritize defense over offense at the trade deadline. Although they lack depth, Edmonton still has a potent offense with McDavid and Draisaitl leading the way.<\/p>\n The Oilers, however, have allowed at least five goals in four of their last six games. This is a potentially serious problem heading towards a playoff push. An extra quality addition to the blue line could give Edmonton a solid boost in the postseason.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tChristopher Moore<\/a> Christopher Moore has been a Heavy.com contributor since 2025. With over a decade of experience in the industry, he has published thousands of articles reporting on multiple professional sports. He was previously a sports writer for World Soccer Talk, the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and the Maryland Sports Blog. More about Christopher Moore<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Oilers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Edmonton Oilers are likely desperate to make a major move or two ahead of the trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-510045","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\/510045","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=510045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2247374042-e1769533651742.jpg\")
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