The Edmonton Oilers are in a bit of a pickle. The St. Louis Blues signed two of their key RFAs to offer sheets late last week, putting the Oilers into a panic to try to re-sign them. Philip Broberg (2 years, $4.58 million) and Dylan Holloway (2 years, $2.9 million) were both inked by the Blues, and now the Oilers are trying to clear cap space to match both offer sheets. This is an interesting time where the Rangers can capitalize on the Oilers misfortune.
The Oilers are rumored to be looking to trade both Cody Ceci (1 year, $3.25 million) and Brett Kulak (2 years, $2.75 million) to clear the necessary room. Moving Evander Kane to LTIR will help too.
Since the writing of this post, Ceci has been traded to San Jose with a 3rd rounder for Ty Emberson, former Ranger. I have since edited this post to account for it.
With Ceci thankfully off the table, he’s bad, the focus would be on Kulak. While there is a part of me that wanted to see this fan base’s reaction to a Ceci-Jacob Trouba pairing, Kulak would actually be a solid upgrade in a lot of spots for the Rangers. A lefty that can play both sides, Kulak is just overall solid. He’s a good skater who moves the puck well and is very good in his own zone.
As a bonus, the systems would be somewhat similar with Kris Knoblauch in Edmonton. There’s a potential great fit here.
Edmonton is not operating from a position of strength. Though the Ceci trade paved the way to match for now, they will need another trade once Evander Kane comes off LTIR. It would behoove them to trade Kulak now, so they can still bank some cap space while Kane is on LTIR.
For the sake of this post–mostly because I spent a good amount of time writing this before the Ceci trade and I don’t want my efforts wasted–we are going to assume the Oilers still want to move Kulak to get some additional breathing room. Kulak is better than Ceci, comes with a very manageable cap hit, and has two full seasons and playoff runs attached to him.
Ryan Lindgren’s struggles matter
The hope for the Rangers is Ryan Lindgren’s struggles last season were a blip, but it’s hard to ignore such a steep drop off for the hard nosed defenseman. An inability to stay fully healthy, a decline that may or may not be a blip, and a questionable fit in Peter Laviolette’s system all make for a possible need to replace Lindgren in-season. It’s unpopular for sure, but unpopular decisions need to be made at some point.
Naturally, Lindgren can’t be traded for Kulak since Lindgren comes with a heftier price tag. However if the Rangers are able to land Kulak without subtracting on defense (note: Zac Jones), then Lindgren may be the odd man out sooner than you might think. A one year deal for a heart and soul guy could mean the writing is on the wall, and I think many have already accepted this.
We are operating in conditional statements because, of course, we know nothing, Jon Snow.
For the Rangers to take advantage of the Oilers, they’d need to attach some kind of useful player for Kulak, perhaps someone like Matthew Robertson, who won’t be a Ranger unless the entire blue line comes down with the mumps. Chris Drury would likely look to get a pick out of the Oilers too, but Kulak for Robertson would help Edmonton achieve what they need, while giving the Rangers a solid player for the next two seasons for a very low price.
In this hypothetical, the Rangers add Kulak without subtracting off the main roster. They’d then need to move Lindgren for draft picks to free up the necessary space. This would essentially be an on-roster flip of Lindgren for Kulak. In terms of performance last season, this is an upgrade for the Rangers in multiple different aspects. We don’t know what Kulak brings off the ice, but we know losing Lindgren would be a gut punch for many in the locker room.
Again, this is all hypothetical and unlikely to happen. We are using Lindgren as the odd-man out because of how his contract process went this summer. It’s clear the Rangers don’t want to commit to him long term, and for good reason. If that holds true, Lindgren is gone at some point in the next calendar year. May as well try to upgrade now while two good deals can be made.
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