The Edmonton Oilers are open to trading the 4th overall pick, general manager Peter Chiarelli told “Oilers Now” on 630 CHED on Monday.
“I’ve already had four or five teams call me already,” he said. “I’ve made it known we would look to trade down if the right deal is there.”
This is a reiteration of his willingness to move the pick, which he has expressed multiple times since the draft lottery put Edmonton at 4th overall. The new bit is that he’s starting to get calls.
“We went through a lot of scenarios at the amateur meetings. That’s when you’re most creative. Now, executing these things is often hard, but there’s some real stuff that could come across our desk in the next few weeks.”
In a previous discussion about moving the 4th overall pick, Chiarelli said that there’s a “real legitimate chance” that they move the pick. In return for trading down, he’s looking for a pick and a NHL player, preferably a defenseman.
“There’s also a chance, as I said in my previous comments, that we could move the pick to get an NHL defenseman, too. That is a top four defenseman. We’re going to look at a lot of different things,” Chiarelli told CHED back on May 2.
It makes a lot of sense with the team’s blue line struggles and that this is only the second time over the last six seasons that they’ll be making their first pick outside of the top three selections.
Signing un-drafted free agent Drake Caggiula out of North Dakota and un-drafted free agent Patrick Russell out of St. Cloud State should help him get the work done that needs to be done. Getting two forward prospects outside of the draft opens up the possibilities for Chiarelli. It makes it easier to go after a defenseman that could help the team now with their first pick and worry a little less about the team’s forward depth.
h/t Chris Nichols for the transcription
