March 3, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

Trade Deadline Day ended up being a quiet day for Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland. There was some chatter that Holland might’ve been looking at adding another right handed defenceman, such as Radko Gudas, but nothing came to fruition. He did his work earlier in the week. It wasn’t Erik Karlsson, but Holland stepped up and made a significant move under immense pressure from the fan base.

Jesse Puljujarvi to Carolina for Patrik Puistola:

The Puljujarvi saga finally came to a head on Tuesday. Apparently Holland approached Puljujarvi and his agent to inform them that he wouldn’t be qualified this summer and to offer a contract at a number that started with a one. Puljujarvi said that he would prefer a fresh start elsewhere. 

Puistola is a 22 year old former third round pick that has taken a step in his fourth professional season. He leads Jukurit of the SM-Liiga with 38 points in 56 games. Puistola has a dynamic offensive skill set, but his issue has been his skating. The Oilers have until June 1 to sign him to an entry level contract, or else he will become a free agent. The most impactful part of the return for Puljujarvi is the $3 million of cap space.

Related: Oilers Trade Puljujarvi to Carolina

Mattias Ekholm to Edmonton for Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaeffer, 2023 1st round pick, 2024 4th round pick:

The cap space gained in the Puljujarvi trade made the Ekholm trade possible. Barrie’s contract was the largest expendable contract, which went a long way towards being able to absorb the $6 million cap hit for Ekholm. Nashville retained 4% of Ekholm’s salary, which ended up being important.

There was a significant amount of draft capital involved in this deal. Schaefer was a promising prospect with size and scoring ability, but his reality was that he was stuck behind Evander Kane, Zach Hyman, Ryan-Nugent Hopkins, Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Mattias Janmark, and Dylan Holloway that can all play left wing. He doesn’t project to be an impactful top six winger, so it isn’t a crippling loss. I don’t mind using the 2023 first round pick to add an impactful player with term.

Related: Oilers bolster blueline by acquiring Mattias Ekholm

Nick Bjugstad and Cam Dineen to Edmonton for a 2023 3rd round pick and Michael Kesselring

The 4% retention on Ekholm turned out to be important because of Bjugstad. Arizona retained 50% of Bjugstad’s cap hit, which makes his cap hit $450k for the Oilers. The Oilers have exactly zero dollars in cap space after adding Bjugstad. Having Bjugstad at that low of a cap hit means that the Oilers can have a 21-man active roster rather than a 20-man active roster. They can now carry an extra body in case of a surprise injury or illness. They didn’t have enough cap space to be able to call anyone up prior to the Bjugstad deal, so a recall wasn’t an option.

Kesselring was a sixth round pick for the Oilers that played his way into relevancy. He should be praised for the strides he made while developing in the Oilers system. He’s among the goal leaders by defencemen in the AHL this season. Kesselring gets to make his NHL debut for the Coyotes tonight, and I hope for nothing but the best for him tonight and going forward.

Dineen is 24 years old and he has 34 games of NHL experience already. He has 35 points in 50 games for Tucson of the AHL this season. He’s a solid addition to the Condors, and he becomes another call up option for the Oilers should the need arise.

This is the Oilers lineup when healthy after the trade deadline:

Kane – McDavid – Hyman

Nugent-Hopkins – Draisaitl – Yamamoto

Foegele – McLeod – Janmark

Kostin – Bjugstad – Ryan

Shore

Nurse – Ceci

Ekholm – Bouchard

Kulak – Desharnais

Broberg

*Holloway

Campbell

Skinner

The Ekholm trade was the closest thing to a good old fashioned hockey trade that we’ve seen near the deadline in quite some time. Ekholm is an extremely well rounded defender that transitions the puck well, but he is a shutdown defender first and foremost. The Oilers sit 20th in the league in goals against, and the defensive mistakes that have occurred far too often this season have been well documented. Ekholm brings a stabilizing presence to the back end.

Barrie was having a great season for the Oilers as a powerplay point man and second pairing defender. Barrie was never known for his defensive abilities, but he improved in that area under Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson. Barrie was a luxury because of Evan Bouchard. Barrie was brought here to fill the gap as a right-handed puck moving powerplay specialist until Bouchard proved to be fully ready for the responsibility. This is Bouchard’s time to shine. He becomes the powerplay point man after Barrie’s departure. The powerplay runs through McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins. It will still perform at a high level with Bouchard rather than Barrie. Barrie’s money was eventually going to have to be spent to improve the roster elsewhere, and that’s exactly what happened in the Ekholm deal.

Ekholm’s arrival has pushed Brett Kulak down to a third pairing role, which is a better spot for Kulak. He was holding his own on a second pairing with Barrie, but the team is stronger with him on the third pairing. Philip Broberg has been bumped down to the seventh defence spot if Tuesday’s game was any indication. Broberg received 8:05 in ice time while fellow rookie Vincent Desharnais got 14:54. Desharnias is likely another reason why Barrie was expendable. Desharnais has proven to be solid defensively, and he’s played great since being recalled.

Darnell Nurse’s minutes don’t appear to be at all affected by Ekholm’s arrival. He got 24:56 in that game against Toronto on Tuesday. Ekholm’s arrival has sparked a change in how the rotations go on defence though. Nurse and Ceci were being tasked with the tough work, and the other defencemen would see significantly less ice time than that pairing received. Ekholm played 20:50 in his Oilers debut, the second most of all Oilers defencemen. There’s a clear top four here with Nurse, Ceci, Ekholm, and Bouchard. Kulak, Desharnais, and Broberg are clearly the bottom three right now. The fundamental shift from having a top pairing and two bottom pairings to having two top pairings and a bottom pairing reduces the amount of time that the Nurse – Ceci pairing will have to play against elite competition. It also eases the quality of competition for Kulak. All of those factors should make the Oilers a stronger defensive team.

Bjugstad is a smart, subtle addition for the Oilers. The 30-year old has 23 points in 59 games for the Arizona Coyotes this season. This is the first time in the last five years where Bjugstad has been healthy. The last time the 6’4” forward played a full season was 2017-18. Last season was the only time in the last six seasons that he was over 50% in the faceoff circle, so I’m not buying the idea that he’s some kind of faceoff specialist. The thing that excites me about Bjugstad is the fact that he has somehow managed to have a positive goal share (33-27, 55%) on a horrible team despite having negative shot and scoring chance metrics. That tells me that he must be doing something right in his own end. He will provide some depth offence as well.

I would call this a successful deadline for Holland. He added the shutdown defenceman that was so sorely needed, and he found a way to add a useful forward without having to sacrifice another one. I would say that the additions will be more impactful than the losses of Puljujarvi and Barrie. Holland improved the Oilers’ odds of winning a Stanley Cup at the deadline while being in a tough cap situation. That’s a win in my books. Now we get to settle in and see how it all plays out!