Report: Oilers and Coyotes nearly pulled off a blockbuster deal at 2016 NHL Draft

Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka was on the latest episode of the 31 Thoughts podcast with hosts Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman earlier today, giving hockey fans a bit of a peek behind the curtain on how trades go down between GMs.

In discussing the Coyotes’ selection of Clayton Keller at the 7th overall selection, Chayka admitted that nearly every team picking in the top 10, outside of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets who had zeroed in on Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, had serious discussions around trades that ultimately would have transformed franchises. 

As a reminder, here’s how the top seven of the draft went down:

1. Auston Matthews - Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Patrik Laine - Winnipeg Jets
3. Pierre Luc Dubois - Columbus Blue Jackets
4. Jesse Puljujarvi - Edmonton Oilers
5. Olli Juolevi - Vancouver Canucks
6. Matthew Tkachuk - Calgary Flames
7. Clayton Keller - Arizona Coyotes

Had Dubois NOT been chosen 3rd overall, Chayka claims that things would have been VERY different and Friedman confirms that Nashville Predators superstar P.K. Subban, who was with the Montreal Canadiens at the time, probably gets traded to the Vancouver Canucks. 

Check out some of these quotes:

“There was a lot of talk on the floor, and Brad Treliving (Calgary Flames GM) he’s a deal maker and he was running around and Peter Chiarelli (Edmonton Oilers GM), Jim (Benning, Vancouver Canucks GM) and Jarmo (Kekkalainen, Columbus Blue Jackets GM), I mean they were all pretty active ahead of that draft," said Chayka. "I think it’s pretty well documented. But we had Clayton very high, we had a deal in place to move up higher, I think obviously Columbus… I mean I remember the gasp on the floor when they made that selection (Pierre-Luc Dubois).”

Friedman interrupted saying, “If they don’t take Dubois, P.K. Subban is probably a Vancouver Canuck.”

“I think there’s a lot of things that probably go off of that because we would have been moving up, or Edmonton," said Chayka. "We would have been moving up to select Keller.” 

“At Edmonton’s spot (fourth overall)?,” asked Friedman. “Yeah that was the discussion," replied Chayka. "I think Edmonton was very active they had a lot going on, ultimately we had some things going on and I called Peter and he said, ‘I’m keeping the pick’ so… we had Clayton extremely high.”

Now, we can only really speculate as to what was going to happen, but it’s clear that Chayka was concerned that someone was going to sneak up in the draft to take Keller. It’s believed that the Canadiens wanted to select Dubois with Vancouver’s pick at 5th overall in exchange for Subban. With Dubois off the board at 3rd overall though, that exchange went out the window. 

The real question is… what were Chiarelli and the Oilers planning? We now know that just days later he’d end up trading Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Adam Larsson. Was Hall in play at the draft? Seems likely… but how would that affect the likelihood of Keller going higher than 7th overall? Again… all we can do is speculate, but one thing is clear: hockey fans were deprived of a WHOPPER of a deal that fateful day.