{"id":455376,"date":"2026-02-12T07:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455376\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T07:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:57:21","slug":"edmonton-oilers-focus-on-wrong-trade-target-and-guilty-of-wishful-thinking-about-fixing-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455376\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers focus on wrong trade target — and guilty of wishful thinking about fixing defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

This in from NHL insider Frank Seravalli speaking on the Kevin Karius sports radio show in Edmonton, Seravalli\u2019s take that the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> aren\u2019t focused on targeting another defenceman in trade talks and instead believe that fixing the defence will take care of itself.<\/p>\n

Asked if Edmonton will be able to trade for a legit Top 4 d-man, Seravalli said: \u201cHonestly, 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 And I think the danger in that is you just traded one of your best playoff performers, Brett Kulak, who raises his level consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the issue about whether or not the Oilers have the cap space and assets to make any kind of big trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also not just an asset thing, like it becomes a true salary cap juggle,\u201d Seravalli said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton doesn\u2019t have answers on defence right now, Seravalli said. \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

Asked if Edmonton might reconsider and bring in a d-man, Seravalli said, \u201cI don\u2019t know how it could change. Could their deadline priority change?\u00a0 I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe Edmonton moves off of trading for a scoring winger with some size, Seravalli said, then trades Mangiapane\u2019s contract to get some cap space.\u00a0 \u201cGiven that you\u2019ve now taken a body out of your lineup, unless you have someone coming from Bakersfield, \u2013and this is the key emphasis here \u2014 that you\u2019re actually going to trust and utilize in the correct way, then I don\u2019t see an option there. So now you need to replace that player. How are you going to do that? Who\u2019s going to provide the depth scoring that you\u2019ve been lacking to this point?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

My take<\/p>\n

1. I don\u2019t get the trade focus of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

3. There\u2019s 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\u2019s played against men for several years now in Germany and the AHL. He\u2019s a big, smart defensively responsible centre who can forecheck.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll block Samanski\u2019s development and opportunity in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

4. But do you know where there is a need because the player GM Stan Bowman has tried out haven\u2019t worked out? On defence.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s been banged up, but when he has played, he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

5. There\u2019s 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\u2019s Plan A, where is Coffey?<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a an asset to the Oilers.<\/p>\n

But Walman, Stastney and Regula have been getting caved on defence. But I\u2019m 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\u2019s top priority for whatever assets and cap space Bowman can muster up to make a deal?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my conviction. How do you see it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This in from NHL insider Frank Seravalli speaking on the Kevin Karius sports radio show in Edmonton, Seravalli\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[4059,1824,3592,1502,1809,198,146,5300,425,2197,5,3144,1106,7154,4812,10563,868,38,4,24,21219,8686,9700,14287,1587,6769,4702,1745,13326],"class_list":["post-455376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-alec-regula","tag-andrew-mangiapane","tag-brett-kulak","tag-brock-faber","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-evan-bouchard","tag-frank-seravalli","tag-hockey","tag-jake-walman","tag-jeff-skinner","tag-josh-samanski","tag-kasperi-kapanen","tag-matt-savoie","tag-mattias-ekholm","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-roby-jarventie","tag-shaughn-butts","tag-spencer-stastney","tag-trade-talks","tag-trent-frederic","tag-tristan-jarry","tag-ty-emberson","tag-viktor-arvidsson","tag-viljami-marjala"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455376","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=455376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}