August 24, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Oilers have had a busy August with the decisions to let Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg walk away after signing their offer sheets, trading Cody Ceci and a 2025 third round pick to the San Jose Sharks for Ty Emberson, and trading for Vasily Podkolzin. It appears that the Edmonton Oilers aren’t quite done making moves this summer though.

Bob Stauffer dropped in with a spot on his own show, Oilers Now, while on vacation last Tuesday after the Oilers declined to match the offer sheets. He also dropped some information on what the Oilers might do later this summer. He said that “…they’re going to be adding a PTO defenceman. It’s coming…There might be a guy that’s got some history with Kris Knoblauch who might be available on a PTO too… There’s somebody that he knows well that’s not signed an NHL deal right now that’s played a bit in the league in the past three or four years, actually he’s played a fair amount in the league in the last three or four years. I wonder if that guy makes sense. They’re adding for sure.”

Stauffer mentioned that the Oilers will be playing a split squad game against the Calgary Flames on September 23, 2024. He said that the Oilers have fourteen defencemen on NHL contracts. He explained that the Oilers will likely choose to add a defenceman on a PTO just to make sure that they have enough “veteran” defencemen available without making their top defencemen available for those two games.

I put “veteran” in quotes because the NHL has specific criteria that make a player a “veteran” for preseason games, and there is a rule that dictates that each team has to dress at least eight “veterans” for each preseason game. Skaters need to have either played at least 30 NHL games the season before, or at least 100 NHL games to be considered a “veteran”. A current year first round pick also counts as a veteran, so Sam O’Reilly will count as a “veteran” for preseason games this fall.

There are three defencemen who fit the criteria of having played for Knoblauch at some point, qualifying as a “veteran” for preseason games, and having played a fair amount in the league in the last three or four years who do not currently have contracts. Those players are Libor Hajek, Jarred Tinordi, and Travis Dermott.

Hajek played for Knoblauch with the Hartford Wolfpack for parts of three seasons. He has 110 NHL games under his belt. However, he played for Pardubice HC in Czechia last season, so I’m not sure how many NHL teams will be knocking on the 26-year old’s door this summer.

Tinordi played for Knoblauch with the Wolfpack in 2021-22. He has 205 NHL games under his belt, including 52 with the Chicago Blackhawks last season. 

Dermott played for Knoblauch with the Eerie Otters for three seasons. Yes, he played with Connor McDavid and Connor Brown as well. Dermott has 329 NHL games to his credit, including 50 with the Arizona Coyotes last season.

Stauffer also made a post on X on Thursday suggesting that the defenceman coming in on a PTO would be able to play either side of the ice:

Wouldn't surprise me if the @EdmontonOilers are exploring the option of adding another right shot D.

Or bringing in someone on a PTO that can play LD/RD.

EDM could also end up targeting a 2nd pairing RD at the trade deadline with the accrued cap space they will have.

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) August 22, 2024

Dermott is the only one of the three defencemen that I just mentioned that has played both sides in the NHL. I speculated that Dermott would be someone that the Oilers might consider bringing in at last year’s trade deadline mostly because Dermott is a former client of Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson’s. I would be shocked if Dermott is not the PTO defenceman that Stauffer was talking about.

Related: Oilers 2024 Trade Deadline Rumours

Frank Seravalli dropped some information about the Oilers’ search for a right-handed defenceman on Friday:

UFA Update: #Oilers are perusing the market for right-shot D, including Justin Schultz, Tyson Barrie and Kevin Shattenkirk, among others.

Also, Max Pacioretty has firm offers in-hand from at least three teams, the veteran forward expected to make a decision soon.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) August 23, 2024

The thing that those three have in common, aside from being right-handed defencemen, is that they have all been top four defencemen at some point in their careers. The Oilers have question marks on the right side of the second pairing.

Tyson Barrie’s name is the most eye-catching on that list since he’s a former Oiler. He was traded to the Nashville Predators as part of the package that brought Mattias Ekholm to the Oilers. Barrie was a part of the deal for a few reasons. One was to make the money work. Another was to allow Evan Bouchard the chance to run the top powerplay unit. Having both Barrie and Bouchard was redundant. Barrie was also not known for his lockdown defensive play.

Barrie only played in 41 games for the Predators last season, and he only got into one playoff game for them. However, there are two pros for bringing Barrie back. One is that he’s extremely well liked in the Oilers dressing room. The other is that Barrie and Darnell Nurse formed a more effective pairing in Barrie’s last season with the Oilers than Nurse and Cody Ceci were last season.

Justin Schultz is intriguing to me because of his smooth skating and his puck moving ability. He’s also won two Stanley Cups. However, I’m not sure how keen Schultz would be about coming back to Edmonton after he was essentially run out of town in 2016 after being thrown into the deep end on the top pairing of a terrible Oilers team in the early part of his career. 

Kevin Shattenkirk is not the elite offensive defenceman that he once was, but he’s still playing solid hockey at this stage in his career. He was effective on a strong Boston Bruins team last season, but he only averaged 14:16 per game at even strength, which does not scream “second pairing”. It should be noted that Shattenkirk blocked a trade to the Oilers in 2016 because he wouldn’t sign with the team long-term. However, he blocked a trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2017, and he eventually won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020.

Seravalli also used the words “among others” in his post on X. 

Tony DeAngelo has a long and checkered past in the NHL, but if there’s one organization that has shown a willingness to give people chances after questionable off ice behaviour, it’s the Oilers. There’s no denying that DeAngelo is a talented offensive defenceman. He puts up points everywhere he goes. Points aren’t everything as a defenceman, but they are an indicator that a player makes smart decisions and skilled plays with the puck that lead to offence. The issue is his defensive ability, his lack of consistent playing time last season, and his off-ice conduct.

There’s also John Klingberg, who fits a similar profile to the other right-handed defencemen that I’ve just discussed. Offensively inclined former top four defenceman with defensive question marks. Klingberg is also coming off of a season where he barely played due to a hip injury which he had surgery to address this calendar year.

Gustav Lindstrom is another player that some people have mentioned as a possibility. The 2017 second round pick played 32 of his 174 NHL games with the Anaheim Ducks last season. He had an astonishing 23-11 (67.65%) five-on-five goal share on a shoddy Ducks team. However, his expected goals for percentage was 46.60%. That’s a large discrepancy between actual and expected goals that can’t be expected to last forever. Lindstrom has far more NHL experience, but I’m not sold that he’s more of a sure bet than Emberson is at this point.

Related: Oilers trade Ceci to the Sharks

Calen Addison is also out there. The 2018 second rounder is only a year removed from a season where he put up 29 points in 63 games for the Minnesota Wild. He played twelve games for the Wild last season before being traded to the Sharks, where he played 60 more games. He got 17 points in the 72 total games that he played last year. Addison is small at 5’11” and 173 lbs, but he clearly has some skill. He’s similar to Troy Stecher, but younger and with more draft pedigree.

Adding a player or two on a PTO won’t be a problem for the Oilers at all. They could accommodate one or two defencemen signed to deals worth around $1 million for the 2024-25 season with some roster shuffling. Once again, I’ll be shocked if Dermott doesn’t get signed to a PTO; but I’m not sure how the right side will play out. It will be a situation to monitor over the coming weeks.