Rumor: Oilers to blow up the team, fire sale on the way

The Edmonton Oilers are in the thick of a tight race - for the bottom of the standings and the best odds at superstar-in-the-making Rasmus Dahlin. This is not a position Peter Chiarelli and co. saw themselves being in at the end of November after their big breakout season in 2016-17.

There's time for them to turn things around, but as of now, Todd McLellan has not found the solution for his team's woes.

Allan Mitchell of The Athletic outlined the likely plan for the team as they head towards the trade deadline, should things remain the way they are. In other words, if they continue to dwell in the basement of the NHL, they will be sellers at the deadline and there are several players that will likely be moved.

Mitchell divides these players into a few categories - rental deals, hockey deals, and cap-relief deals.

The rental players are those on expiring contracts, which includes Mike Cammalleri, Patrick Maroon, Mark Letestu, and Yohann Auvitu. The expected return on any of these players is a young winger who could hopefully emerge as a contributor to the team's top 9, as well as a few mid to late round draft picks.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins obviously leads the way as far as hockey deals go. It seems almost inevitable that he will be traded now, although anyone who knows anything in Edmonton prays they don't trade him away - the perception teams have on him diminishes his value despite his deceptively strong play. He's a candidate to break out on another team and make Chiarelli look silly, yet again.

Ryan Strome and Matt Benning are also strong possibilities to be dealt for players and picks of a higher calibre, including players like Jake DeBrusk from the Boston Bruins or Sonny Milano of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

On the cap-relief front, you have Milan Lucic, Kris Russell, Andrej Sekera, and Cam Talbot. All have no-trade/no-movement clauses in their deals and would be a tough sell. Mitchell also believes that Chiarelli doesn't want to part ways with them, but mentions that Lucic could serve as the best candidate to be dealt, with teams likely interested in his services.

Any way you shake it, Chiarelli is on the hot seat. Oilers fans put up with 10 years of mediocrity, and with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl they were supposed to be out of the woods. Major, major changes may be on the way. And soon.