This in from NHL insider Frank Seravalli speaking on the Kevin Karius sports radio show in Edmonton, Seravalli’s take that the Edmonton Oilers aren’t focused on targeting another defenceman in trade talks and instead believe that fixing the defence will take care of itself.

Asked if Edmonton will be able to trade for a legit Top 4 d-man, Seravalli said: “Honestly, I don’t see it. And I believe, just in the conversations that I’ve had, that the Oilers haven’t really spent a ton of time looking at defence, that their thought process has been, ‘We will improve organically when the time is right. These guys know how to flip the switch.’ And I think the danger in that is you just traded one of your best playoff performers, Brett Kulak, who raises his level consistently.”

There’s also the issue about whether or not the Oilers have the cap space and assets to make any kind of big trade.

“It’s also not just an asset thing, like it becomes a true salary cap juggle,” Seravalli said. “I mean, what was the rush to sign (d-man Jake) Walman to the extension (last summer)? What was the impetus to give an eight year deal to Trent Frederic? They got a little bit over their skis, I think, in terms of their aggression. Sometimes aggression needs to be commended. Teams that jump first and sign players to long-term, big money contracts a lot of times come out ahead. But in this case, it seems like their evaluation process has been a little bit off.”

Edmonton doesn’t have answers on defence right now, Seravalli said. “The thing is, none of the Oilers’ defensemen are miracle workers. Your partner can’t absolve the sins of Darnell Nurse’s game — and no one and, not Tristan Jarry at times, can bail this team out from their defensive lapses when Evan Bouchard has a critical turnover or gets walked. There is no magic potion for that and I don’t see that coming. There’s no cavalry coming given that they haven’t even found a way to get someone to take on Andrew Mangiapane’s contract yet.”

Asked if Edmonton might reconsider and bring in a d-man, Seravalli said, “I don’t know how it could change. Could their deadline priority change?  I guess.”

Maybe Edmonton moves off of trading for a scoring winger with some size, Seravalli said, then trades Mangiapane’s contract to get some cap space.  “Given that you’ve now taken a body out of your lineup, unless you have someone coming from Bakersfield, –and this is the key emphasis here — that you’re actually going to trust and utilize in the correct way, then I don’t see an option there. So now you need to replace that player. How are you going to do that? Who’s going to provide the depth scoring that you’ve been lacking to this point?”

Even if Mangiapane were to be traded, Edmonton would still be limited by cap considerations to trading for a fifth or sixth d-man.

My take

1. I don’t get the trade focus of the Edmonton Oilers. All of the insiders have consistently said for some time now that the Oilers need another forward. While that notion might have made sense a month or two ago, the facts on the ice have changed since then, so much so that it makes little sense to spend scarce resources on another veteran Top 9 winger.

2. Kasperi Kapanen has come in and been exactly the kind of big, aggressive scoring winger who can play in the Top 6 that the Oilers had been hoping to bring in with a trade. Why trade for that kind of player when you have limited trade resources and less than zero cap space unless Mangiapane is traded?

3. There’s also been talk of the need for a third line centre. Well, 23-year-old Josh Samanski has just played strong two-way hockey at third line centre in a handful of games since getting called up from Bakersfield, where he was crushing it. Samanski is no raw rookie. He’s played against men for several years now in Germany and the AHL. He’s a big, smart defensively responsible centre who can forecheck.

Is it too much for the Oilers to risk going with him, as opposed to trading key assets to bring in another centre. If that centre has any kind of term left on his contract, he’ll block Samanski’s development and opportunity in Edmonton.

The same goes at wing, where if the Oilers bring in a winger with any kind of term that player will block opportunity for Kapanen, Matt Savoie, Ike Howard, Quinn Huston, Roby Jarventie and Viljami Marjala?

Why are the Oilers seemingly so intent on blocking opportunity for promising AHL players only to bring in another high-cost, high-priced veteran wingers who might well underperform, as we saw in the last two years from Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Frederic and Mangiapane.

4. But do you know where there is a need because the player GM Stan Bowman has tried out haven’t worked out? On defence.

Spencer Stastney and Alec Regula are both hard-working players with some NHL skills. Stastney can really skate. Regula can move the puck and is a big d-man with a huge wingspan and sound positional instincts. But neither young-ish d-man has been able to get it done defensively in Edmonton. Both have struggled, both leaking Grade A shots, 5-alarm shots and goals against. The same goes for Walman, who was so good in the 2025 playoffs. He’s been banged up, but when he has played, he’s made all kinds of bad decisions and bad plays leading to that unwanted big three of defensive hockey: Grade A shots, 5-alarm shots and goals against.

5. There’s a chance that if the Edmonton Oilers were to bring back coach Paul Coffey to again lead the defensive team that things might well change organically, as Seravalli says is Plan A. Well, if that’s Plan A, where is Coffey?

D-men like Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm are playing well under new defensive coach Mark Stuart. So has Ty Emberson is a third-pairing role. Darnell Nurse has been up-and-down, not nearly as bad as some would portray him, and solid enough that most nights he’s a an asset to the Oilers.

But Walman, Stastney and Regula have been getting caved on defence. But I’m not seeing things getting better with Walman, Statsney and Regula. Is it not obvious that unless Coffey is brought back in the next week then trading for a new d-man should be the team’s top priority for whatever assets and cap space Bowman can muster up to make a deal?

That’s my conviction. How do you see it?