{"id":455205,"date":"2026-02-12T03:59:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455205\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T03:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T03:59:26","slug":"insider-edmonton-oilers-deadline-plans-arent-what-you-think-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455205\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider: Edmonton Oilers’ Deadline Plans Aren’t What You Think They Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oilers<\/a>
With all the talk about the Edmonton Oilers’ defensive struggles, and the team potentially looking for a top-4, ‘Mattias Ekholm (circa 2023) type’ addition to their blueline at the deadline, at least one insider feels that’s just not going to happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frank Seravalli insisted<\/a> in a recent appearance on the Kevin Karius Show (h\/t<\/a> David Staples, Edmonton Journal), that the defense is not the front office’s focus right now.<\/p>\n

Honestly, I don\u2019t see it. And I believe, just in the conversations that I\u2019ve had, that the Oilers haven\u2019t really spent a ton of time looking at defence, that their thought process has been, \u2018We will improve organically when the time is right. These guys know how to flip the switch.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the problems with that (among many?), Seravalli adds, is that “the danger in that is you just traded one of your best playoff performers, Brett Kulak, who raises his level consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The acquisition of Ekholm at the 2023 trade deadline drastically changed the outlook of the Oilers. That’s not about to repeat itself in 2026. And about that ‘improving from within’ thing? Seravalli just isn’t buying it.<\/p>\n

‘There’s no cavalry coming’ for Oilers defense, says insider<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, none of the Oilers\u2019 defensemen are miracle workers. Your partner can\u2019t absolve the sins of Darnell Nurse\u2019s game \u2014 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\u2019t see that coming. There\u2019s no cavalry coming, given that they haven\u2019t even found a way to get someone to take on Andrew Mangiapane\u2019s contract yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staples is also puzzled<\/a> by the Oilers’ plans to steer away from adding a defenseman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Is it not obvious that unless (Paul) Coffey is brought back (as a defensive coach) in the next week, then trading for a new d-man should be the team\u2019s top priority for whatever assets and cap space Bowman can muster up to make a deal?”<\/p>\n

After surrendering 34 goals in their last seven games before the Olympic Break (4.86 goals against per game),\u00a0Leon Draisaitl went off on his “It starts with the coaches” rant<\/a>. Will the Oilers front office take heed, and try to bring back coach Coffey for the blueline? Or perhaps change their deadline plans and focus on defense?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo: \u00a9 Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With all the talk about the Edmonton Oilers’ defensive struggles, and the team potentially looking for a top-4,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5125],"tags":[198,146,5300,5,181,4,465,550,106,60,107,549,548,546,547,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-455205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-edmonton","9":"tag-edmonton-oilers","10":"tag-edmontonoilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-hockey-news","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-nhl-draft","15":"tag-nhl-free-agency","16":"tag-nhl-news","17":"tag-nhl-playoffs","18":"tag-nhl-rumors","19":"tag-nhl-teams","20":"tag-nhl-trade-deadline","21":"tag-nhl-trade-rumors","22":"tag-nhl-trades","23":"tag-oilers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116055662257808584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}