The trade deadline is one of the most anticipated dates on the hockey calendar for fans, as it tends to be the one day a year NHL GMs will make a trade.
It’s also exciting because almost every team has a reason to get involved. You have the teams heading towards the lottery that will dump their upcoming UFAs for futures to help get the rebuild on track, you have Stanley Cup contenders who are looking for that final piece to push them over the top, and then you have those middling teams who have to make a decision on whether or not they will be a buyer or a seller, or can’t make up their mind and just make a trade for trade’s sake (*cough* Jerred Smithson *cough*).
This year’s Edmonton Oilers started the season out looking like they may actually end up in either the seller or no-mans-land categories, but have turned their season around and look to be not just a buyer but a big time buyer, cap space be damned.
Last year, the Oilers had a hell of a deadline, acquiring Mattias Ekholm who was everything the team could have asked for and more.
There are plenty of articles that get written about players the team could acquire, including on this site. But what if teams could get something other than players to help them get to the top?
Cap space generator
Ok this is an obvious one and also one that can happen through trades. For the Oilers, in an ideal world, that would be offloading Jack Campbell’s contract. But the chances of that are slim.
So instead, in order to preserve the team that appears to have gelled quite well, the best thing to happen to the Oilers would be some kind of increase in cap space.
Frankly, a way for teams to increase their cap space in-season would be a marketing hit, and would make the trade deadline even more fun.
The NHL sort of has that in place, as teams accrue cap space over the season as the cap is counted on a daily basis, meaning that a player who is traded at the deadline only counts for a fraction of their actual contract against the cap (that is as far as I will go because I am the farthest thing from a mathematician).
But there should be more fun, accessible ways that don’t require a calculus degree and at least three abacuses (abaci?)
Here are my proposals:
- Price is Right Wheel Spin: A made for TV live event where each NHL GM goes up and spins a wheel with a different amount. Whatever that amount is, their team gets that much more in cap space. You can also adapt this idea to other types of games, such as plinko, a dart board, choose a card, is it cap space or is it cake, etc.
- A secret auction where the NHL has $100M of cap space available to distribute among all the teams. Each team puts down the amount they want, and if the total amount requested is below the $100M, they all get their request. BUT if it is more than $100M, no one gets it. Game theory anyone?
- Every team gets an additional amount of cap space to match the team with the highest LTIR amount. It’s an issue/loophole that is talked about every year, so why not “fix” it by getting rid of the advantage without actually hurting the team that is using it? For example, if the team with the highest LTIR amount is $10M over the cap, now everyone’s cap ceiling is increased to $10M over the cap come trade deadline day.
A trip to the Wizard of Oz
Acquiring a map to the yellow brick road and the Emerald City may be just the thing for a few Oilers.
While courage, heart, brains, and home likely aren’t on the needs list (although depending on the day some Oilers fans would say Cody Ceci needs all of those), I’m sure Connor Brown would certainly like to ask for the ability to score, Jack Campbell for some courage/resolve to get back to form in the NHL, and Dylan Holloway definitely needs some health boost or something.
A copper and blue jersey
Granted, this is more of a personal need, but come on, I can’t be the only fan who misses the late 90s/early 2000s jerseys.
The Millenials who grew up with those jerseys are the ones who are now buying tickets and merchandise, so it is a ripe opportunity to capitalize on that nostalgia. After all, last year’s reverse retro of the MacFarland jersey was very well received.
Plus, look good, feel good, play good right? Just imagine if in the playoffs, the team is down after two periods, then they come out in “new” copper and blue jerseys a la D2 style:
If a mid game surprise walk in worked for Mike Smith in 2022, it can work again in 2024.
An extra 30,000 seats in Rogers Place for the playoffs
This is again more for the fans, but everyone knows Oilers fans are something else during the playoffs, with some people being described as being “their most feral” (said people definitely not being this writer). If you could get another 30,000 seats in the rink, you better believe that they would sell out. After all, just look at the Moss Pit and Fan Park during the playoffs.
This would also maybe help bring ticket prices down a tad? Probably not, but you never know. After all, even at a reasonable lesser amount, you gotta think an extra 30,000 seats adds significantly to the revenue.
Continued hate
As the great James Franco once said, “they hate us cuz they ain’t us” (just don’t say it too fast).
During the Oilers historic winning streak, all you could hear from fans of opposing teams was that the Oilers had a super, ridiculously easy schedule where even the Trinidad and Tobago team from D2 could win every game. When asked why only two other teams had had winning streaks that long in NHL history, the response tended to be something along the lines of “if you don’t shut up I will burn my city to the ground” (not that that is pointed at any specific team’s fanbase or anything).
But hate is a powerful motivator. Everyone talks about overcoming adversity, and while the Oilers already have that checked off the list this year with overcoming their dreadful start, having a constant string of hate can keep that underdog mentality going. After all, it is all very possible that the team’s bad start had something to do with all the press about how they were the Stanley Cup favourite to start the season.
As another great person, Emperor Sheev Palpatine once said, “let the hate flow through you.”
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
