Rumor: Oilers and Wings a potential fit for player for player trade.

Insider believes Holland would be interested in one of his former players.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Rumor: Oilers and Wings a potential fit for player for player trade.
Carl Sandin/Bildbyran/Zuma

It sounds like at least one National Hockey League insider believes that Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland may be interested in one of his former players.

The National Hockey League's trade deadline for the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season is now just a few days away and as a result speculation around the league regarding which trades could end up materializing before that deadline is running rampant. One team that has been in the market for a forward since the very start of the season is none other than the Edmonton Oilers but newly appointed general manager Ken Holland has chosen not to make any big moves as of yet, prefering to stand pat and waiting for the right deal to pull the trigger. You can hardly blame Holland who has had his hands full since taking over as general manager of the Oilers, but now one Oilers insider believes that Holland may be considering a deal that would involved one of his former players. 

Recent comments made by Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal appear to suggest that Holland would very much be open to the idea of trading disgruntled Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for one of Holland's former players in the form of Andreas Athanasiou. From Matheson:

You can bet Ken Holland would trade rights to Puljujarvi for Athanasiou but Wings might want a draft pick too. Maybe OK, as long as it's not a second-rounder? Fourth or higher? Fine

Athanasiou has been a much maligned player this season due to his comically bad plus minus rating of -35 on the season, but the entire team around him has been terrible so it is difficult to gauge how much of the blame he should shoulder for that. Puljujarvi on the other hand is not even playing in the NHL right now in spite of being a former top pick in the draft, and it sounds like he will not be coming back unless the Oilers find a way to move him. I can see why the Red Wings would want an additional asset here given that Athanasiou is a much more proven commodity than Puljujarvi at this point, and it will be interesting to see if the two sides can indeed get this one done. 


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