Reports of monster trade emerge in Edmonton

The Edmonton Oilers claimed to be contenders before entering the 2022-23 season, but now they need to put the money where their mouth is. General manager Ken Holland is reportedly looking at the trade market to improve his roster, and on Tuesday night’s Insider Trading on TSN, Darren Dreger revealed what Holland has targeted to boost his Oilers.

“Defense is an area of concern for the Oilers. It was going into the season, and it continues to be. The Oilers need a top defenseman. Now do they get wild and crazy and try to swing for the fences and try to get in on Erik Karlsson of the San Jose Sharks? It seems impossible that they could do that but there’s some around the organization with interest.

"The problem is that their key veteran defensemen in Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci are playing too much and their younger guys like Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg aren’t quite ready yet. As we saw, Bouchard was benched in a 3-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday.

"So defense is the top priority for general manager Ken Holland.”

We bet fans in Edmonton will keep a close eye on this chatter, especially if Karlsson is in the mix. He leads all NHL defensemen in goals (11) and points (34), and is tied for eighth among NHL skaters in points with Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and Buffalo Sabres’ Tage Thompson.

Karlsson could seek to join a contender and is said to be interested in returning to Canada.
A team with Conor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nurse and Karlsson as leaders could be very tough to beat indeed.

Stay tuned…

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