Former first overall pick admits he has demanded a trade.

The player himself reveals he has demanded a trade.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 8 years ago
Former first overall pick admits he has demanded a trade.

A former first overall pick appears to have revealed he has demanded his team trade him, albeit in his native language.

Edmonton Oilers forward Nail Yakupov spoke to Igor Eronko of Sport-Express, a Russian language Newspaper, and according to Eronko, Yakupov told him that he wants out of Edmonton. Furthermore it appears that Yakupov expected he would be traded but for some reason, despite interest from multiple teams, the trade never happened.

'I asked a trade and (the) Oilers gave a permission to speak to other teams,' said Yakupov, "about 8 of them were interested, but something went wrong'

Yakupov has been heavily criticized since being drafted first overall in the 2012 National Hockey League Entry Draft, and has never really produced at a level one would expect given his pedigree coming in to the league.

With that said Yakupov comes with a very manageable price tag, $2,500,000 for the 2016-2017 before then becoming a free agent, and he could be a very interesting option for teams looking for talent at the forward position. According to Yakupov at least 8 teams expressed interest and with even cap-strapped teams likely being able to make this work it's no surprise.

While Yakupov has never achieved his potential, or what many felt was his potential, as an Edmonton Oiler there is the question of how much blame should fall on the Oilers shoulders for that reality. If teams believe that Yakupov is a reclamation project and could end up turning his career around he could very well be traded in the off-season.

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