{"id":511714,"date":"2026-03-03T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511714\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:01:12","slug":"buckle-up-oiler-fans-smoke-signals-edmonton-working-on-blockbuster-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511714\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Buckle up Oiler fans!’: Smoke signals Edmonton working on blockbuster trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> working on a blockbuster trade?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m starting to wonder.<\/p>\n

This in from NHL insider Brian Lawton: \u201cI think Murphy is the calm before the storm for Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawton was, of course, referencing Edmonton GM Stan Bowman picking up Chicago d-man Connor Murphy for a second round pick on Monday.<\/p>\n

And this in from insider account Klima\u2019s Lid @thackattack41 on Twitter-X: \u201cBowman gets Murphy without giving up the \u201926 2nd OR the \u201927 1st. I doubt a 3C would cost both those picks. As Stauff said, 2 more trades coming\u2026Stan\u2019s cooking & Murphy was just the appetizer. Buckle up Oiler fans!\u201d<\/p>\n

My take<\/p>\n

1. I\u2019m not one to get worked up about most trade rumours but my spider senses are tingling mainly because Lawton is one of the most careful, measured, level-headed and reasonable NHL insiders around, both a former player, agent, and GM. He\u2019s someone with a long history inside the game, someone with excellent contacts, and someone who does not say anything without thinking hard about it.<\/p>\n

As for Klima\u2019s Lid, for several months now this anonymous account has predicted Oilers doings with eerie accuracy, which makes me think they\u2019re getting the inside scoop from someone inside the Oilers organization.<\/p>\n

2. Of course, nothing may pan out here. But combine what these two just said with what Bob Stauffer said on Oilers Now today: \u201cI do not believe the Oilers are done. The NHL trade deadline is Friday. I could possibly see as many as two more trades. OK? It could be zero. But it could be two. You may see a guy get moved out, which creates the flexibility to bring in something else. Time will tell in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the show Stauffer said to guest Frank Seravalli of Frankly Hockey: \u201cI think we both think it\u2019s inevitable that Mangiapane gets moved at some point. Is that fair?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been in my trade targets board in the Top 10 for a long time,\u201d Servalli said.<\/p>\n

It should be noted Stauffer did not hint at any kind of blockbuster trade. Instead he\u2019s talked more about trading for a third line centre.<\/p>\n

Would trading for centre Nic Roy of Toronto be considered a \u201cstorm,\u201d a bigger deal than bringing in Murphy? It\u2019d be a good move, and it could be what Lawton, Stauffer and Klima\u2019s Lid are all referencing, some kind of deal for a solid third-line centre.<\/p>\n

I would not consider such a trade to be a bigger deal than the Murphy deal, but a similar kind of trade in impact on the Oilers.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, add up all this smoke together into one big cloud of speculation, and I suspect that even if Bowman does not pull off a major trade he\u2019s now attempting to swing for the fences.<\/p>\n

And why not?<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a>, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mattias Ekholm won\u2019t be in their hockey playing primes forever.<\/p>\n

3. The fact is that when it comes to making a blockbuster deal, Edmonton is limited. Even if it moves Mangiapane\u2019s contract, that\u2019s just a $3.6 million hole. I suppose if Edmonton could entice an opposing team to eat half of an incoming player\u2019s contract, Edmonton could then bring in a $7.2 million player. That\u2019s inching closer to blockbuster country.<\/p>\n

4. What price would Edmonton have to pay to make such a deal? As Klima\u2019s Lid points out the Oilers have their second round 2026 pick and their first round 2027 pick. They also have a number of solid young pros in Bakersfield that can be used as trading chips. Finally, there are also veteran Oilers players who just might be persuaded to drop their No Movement Clauses, which would give Edmonton even more cap flexibility, but that has the feel of the longest of shots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are the Edmonton Oilers working on a blockbuster trade? I\u2019m starting to wonder. This in from NHL insider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[83287,201856,28335,49,48,6681,12428,164392,23752,453,36386,25908,194602,23988,19120,40702,28334,3302,1215,62331],"class_list":{"0":"post-511714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-blockbuster-trade","9":"tag-bob-stauffer","10":"tag-brian-lawton","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-chicago","14":"tag-connor-mcdavid","15":"tag-connor-murphy","16":"tag-edmonton","17":"tag-edmonton-oilers","18":"tag-evan-bouchard","19":"tag-leon-draisaitl","20":"tag-mangiapane","21":"tag-mattias-ekholm","22":"tag-nhl-trade-deadline","23":"tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins","24":"tag-stan-bowman","25":"tag-toronto","26":"tag-trade","27":"tag-zach-hyman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511714","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=511714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}