I wrote in article in 2018 about how the Edmonton Oilers have a history of trading for Magic Beans. What this means is that the Oilers tend to trade NHL players for players that will never play in the NHL. We tend to trade good players at their absolute lowest value and get very little for them in return. We, in fact, have a very long and painful tradition of this! No one can turn a first rounder into nothing as well as we can.
Is Broberg going to be traded?
The latest news suggests that Philip Broberg is on the block. It would appear that his agent does not have permission to talk to other teams. Broberg is on his way to the AHL. Broberg is an eighth overall pick that has always had some controversy. Cole Caufield and Travis Zegras were available and both would have much higher value than Broberg today. However, defencemen take longer and Broberg has an undeniable toolbox. He’s been good in the AHL but not very good at all in the NHL. Some of this may be due to him receiving very few minutes. Is that because the coaches don’t like him or because he’s not good enough to get more minutes?
The thought of a Broberg trade makes me cringe! This is about to become Magic Beans all over again. If you were to pick the day that Broberg’s value was at it’s lowest possible point, then that day would be today. Trading players at their lowest value and getting little back is an Oilers’ tradition! Let’s look at some of the hits! You may note that most the players traded are former first round picks by the Oilers. We are not good at trading former first rounders at all.
Oilers’ trade pattern
Sam Gagner has been traded three times by the Oilers. He was a first rounder for us, sixth overall. Amazingly, the Oilers lost all three trades. It may be an NHL record! Not one of those trades helped the Oilers in anyway.
Noted clutch performer Jordan Eberle (first rounder, 22nd overall) had one bad playoff series after several very good seasons for the Oilers. Eberle was trashed by the media, had his value lowered and THEN we traded him for very little.
Ryan Strome simply never worked out for the Oilers. He had 36 points in 100 games for the Oilers. Eberle’s worst season as an Oiler was 51 points in 82 games. He will also hit 1000 games this season. Strome was quickly traded in his second season as an Oiler.
Two amazing things about this trade. First, Ryan Spooner accomplished nothing and ended up in Europe not too long after the trade. He would get a grand total of three points for us before leaving for Europe and becoming a full time KHL player (including today despite several countries boycotting the KHL). The other amazing thing? Strome rebounded beautifully. He has 253 points in his last 369 games and is still very much an NHL player.
Remember our first overall pick Nail Yakupov? Well, we turned a first rounder into an ECHL player who never even played a single NHL game for us!
Speaking of first rounders. How about much maligned Jesse Puljujaarvi? He was a fourth overall pick. What did we end up getting for him?
Nothing, we got absolutely nothing for him. First and fourth overall picks returned us exactly nothing.
Let’s stick to round one for more though! How about Kailer Yamamoto?
In this case, we didn’t even get a player, just future considerations. Two top-five picks and a top-20 pick have returned us nothing.
In another hilarious recent trade. We traded OUR first rounder to get rid of Zack Kassian (a first rounder himself).
Anyone remember Ales Hemsky? He gave us everything and was a great player for us. Another first rounder (13th overall). Here is what we got for him.
Other amazing trades that saw us giving up NHL players and getting very little back include Devan Dubnyk (who became a great goalie and was also a first rounder), Justin Schultz (who scored the cup winning goal and is still in the NHL), Chris Pronger (a Hall of Famer), and Mike Comrie.
Should we expect the same for Broberg?
All of these trades are examples of Magic Beans—where we trade a good NHL asset for lesser assets. In many cases we acquired draft picks but we do not draft well so they didn’t materialize for us at all. In some cases, we gave away first rounders to take on bad contracts. In some cases, we draft in the first round and ended up getting nothing for our first rounders.
Today, the next guy up is Broberg. I have zero faith we will get a good or even reasonable trade for him. Expect something like Jakub Zboril or a fourth rounder. The best play is to send him to the AHL and let him play heavy minutes. Only bring him up if you can guarantee him at least 14 minutes a night in a decent role. However, we are Oiler fans and I’d expect Magic Beans.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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