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Oilers eyeing trade up from No. 10 in draft

[June 01, 2018] The Edmonton Oilers could look to trade up from the No. 10 pick in next month's NHL draft.

General manager Peter Chiarelli hinted at the thought in an interview with NHL.com on Wednesday. The results of the lottery drawing dropped the Oilers from the ninth pick to No. 10 after they finished this season a disappointing 36-40-6.

"Unless someone significant falls, there are three or four players at different positions who are at the same talent level," Chiarelli said. "At this point it may be by positional need. But you can't ignore the best-skilled player. That's generally our principle.

"... I know there are teams ahead of us who have positional needs different from ours so that usually means there is an ability to move up. We would look at that."

Edmonton entered the 2017-18 season with high hopes after a 103-point campaign in 2016-17. However, the team struggled out the gate with seven losses in the first month of the season and never was able to recover. Head coach Todd McLellan will return for a fourth season, though his assistants Jim Johnson and Ian Herbers were fired.

The Oilers are led by 21-year-old center Connor McDavid, who paced the NHL in scoring for the second consecutive season at 108 points (41 goals, 67 assists). Although McDavid's output wasn't enough to salvage Edmonton's season, Chiarelli doesn't believe major change is needed this summer.

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"We're not going to do anything significant, generally speaking," he said. "We felt the year before wasn't an anomaly. We felt we'd made significant progress (in 2016-17) on a number of different levels and (this season) things went south on a number of different levels.

"From the planning perspective, we've got some holes we've got to look at filling. I'm told by a number of different people -- and it's legitimate -- that we need a power-play defenseman. That's something that we'll look at. Doesn't mean that these players are just out there."

If the Oilers choose to trade up in the draft to get a defenseman, the Detroit Red Wings could present a potential partner at No. 6. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told The Athletic on Wednesday that he's open to moving the pick and has already had discussions with other teams, though Detroit is also in the market for a top defender.

Regardless of what the Oilers do, Chiarelli is optimistic that better days are ahead for his club.

"We've really improved our depth right through our organization the past couple of years," Chiarelli said. "Again, I just don't want to dismiss that. It doesn't mean there are going to be guys who are going to be impactful right away, but we've got some good young players coming up. And we're going to get a good young player in this draft."

--Field Level Media

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