The Edmonton Oilers are scouting teams looking for possible trade options. Currently on a bit of a roll and hoping to win their fourth-straight game against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night, the team knows that their goaltending remains an issue. Whether they make a trade remains to be seen, but if the group keeps winning, there’s time to make the right trade — and that matters.
If a deal is done, the Oilers will have to move someone off of their roster. Tight to the cap, the options are limited if money doesn’t go out the other way. Who is the likely trade candidate then? If Jack Campbell isn’t of interest to other teams, there may be only one realistic option — Warren Foegele.
Warren Foegele Is the Most Likely Trade Candidate
For the Oilers, they’ll have to give to get. No trade is going to be pain free and while Foegele might not be a key ingredient to the team’s overall ability to compete, he contributes. In the final season of his current contract, he may or may not be part of the team’s long-term plans.
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Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff wrote the following on Thursday:
On the list of Oilers priorities, reimagining the bottom six forward group is there, but it’s probably below fixing the goaltending and adding another defender to help clean up their own end. In order to generate cap space to do any one of those things, Foegele sticks out like a sore thumb on Edmonton’s cap table. Yes, he can reliably produce double digit goals and 25-30 points, but his game is similar in many respects to others around him in the lineup and he makes significantly more. Simply put, if the Oilers have to move money around, Foegele is one of the top candidates.
No, the Oilers don’t want to give up a productive forward. That said, Seravalli is correct when he points out that it’s more likely the team removes from an area of surplus than it is they steal from an area of weakness. For example, the Oilers could move Cody Ceci, but then they’d have to find a replacement for him. It’s not clear that exists internally. Edmonton could move Ryan McLeod, but the market may be limited based on his lack of production, and his cap hit is $650K less that Foegele’s. He’s also a center, who can play wing — something that is a bit harder to come by.
Would It Be Worth Trading Foegele?
Taking a productive forward off the roster isn’t ideal. There’s also another potentially small problem. Connor McDavid likes having Foegele around. According to Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic, the Oilers’ captain specifically requested GM Ken Holland not move Foegele.
He writes:
The Edmonton Oilers were so tight against the salary cap heading into the summer that everyone knew at least one player on the roster would have to go. Connor McDavid didn’t want that player to be winger Warren Foegele, who was in the running to be dealt because he was entering the last year of his contract with a modest $2.75 million cap hit.
source – ‘Connor McDavid pushed for the Oilers to keep Warren Foegele. Here’s why it’s paying off’ – Daniel Nugent-Bowman – The Athletic – 11/06/2023
Since that article, it has been publicly stated that McDavid does not get involved in roster decisions, nor does he want to. But, it wouldn’t be difficult to believe that a quick conversation about how much he likes Foegele might have given management the impression that a deal could have consequences. If McDavid was vocal in his praise of Foegele, recent hiring moves by management suggest that a deal wasn’t happening.
Should the Oilers risk frustrating McDavid by moving someone he likes? Should the Oilers even consider taking a reliable forward off of the roster? That all depends on what the return is and how much more that player helps Edmonton in an area they badly need assistance.