Previously we looked at the best trades the Edmonton Oilers had with the Atlantic Division and the Central Division. Let’s dive right into the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina Hurricanes
Best trade: Oilers acquire Warren Foegele in exchange for Ethan Bear
While at the time I hated this trade, Foegele played decently here. In his first two seasons, he scored an average rate of a bottom six with 26 points in 82 games in 2021–22 then 28 points in 67 games in 2022–23. This past year, albiet with Leon Draisaitl a lot, scored 41 points in a career year. Bear has played with two organizations since then due to a various of reasons from health issues to coaching issues.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Ken Linesman in exchange for Risto Siltanen and Brett Loney. Linesman was a contributor in a few of the Oilers cup wins while both Siltanen and Loney weren’t that impactful for the Whalers.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Best trade: Oilers acquire Curtis Glencross in exchange for Dick Tarnstrom
Tarnstrom was never the same player when Edmonton acquired him from Pittsburgh. He played 51 games in two seasons scoring nine points. Being sent off to CBJ, things didn’t get better for him. He only played 19 games and scored nine points and thus was the end of his NHL Career. While Glencross was only an Oiler for 26 games and scored 13 points, he was undoubtably the best player in the deal and had a lengthy career.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Gilbert Brule in exchange for Raffi Torres. Torres never came close to scoring his output in Edmonton when he was in Columbus while Brule had a career year in 2009–10 with a 37 point season.
New Jersey Devils
Best trade: Oilers acquire Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd in exchange for Bernie Nicholls
Nicholls was still a very solid player when he left Edmonton and definitely was the better player in the trade. However, Ciger wasn’t a bad piece to get back. Zdeno’s best career season came in 1995–96 scoring 70 points in 78 games.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Reijo Ruotsalainen in exchange for Jeff Sharples. Sharples never played a game for NJ while Ruostalainen won the cup with the Oilers in 1990. (And yes I am purposely not going to talk about the Taylor Hall trade)
New York Islanders
Best trade: Oilers acquire Raffi Torres and Brad Isbister in exchange for Janne Niinimaa and a second-round pick in 2003 (Evgeny Tunik)
Raffi Torres was a lowkey nice acquisition by Kevin Lowe. After scoring six points in 31 NHL games for New York, Torres took off in Edmonton. In his first season he put up 20 goals and 34 points and improved the next year scoring 27 goals and 41 points which were both career highs for the rest of his career. In the 2006 playoffs, he collected 11 points in the 22 games. His best years definitely came in Edmonton while Niinimaa only played one full season for the Isles and was bounced around the league for the rest of his career.
Honourable ention: Oilers acquire Tommy Salo in exchange for Mats Lindgren. Salo spent seven seasons in Edmonton as their starter while Lindgren was barely a regular for the Islanders.
(Side note: the Oilers made plenty of terrible trades with the Isles wow. Jordan Eberle, Griffin Reinhart, and Ryan Smyth come to mind)
New York Rangers
Best trade: Oilers acquire Cam Talbot in exchange for a 2015 second-round pick (Jonas Sigenthaler), 2015 third-round pick (Sergey Zboroovskiy), and a 2015 seventh-round pick (Adam Huska)
Sure, while Cam Talbot’s last season in Edmonton was disaterous, people forget just how good he was in his first three seasons here. The Oilers were coming off a year with Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth as their netminders and badly needed an upgrade. Former Oiler GM Glen Sather was the Rangers GM and decided to do his old team a favour. Talbot in the 2015–16 season with an Oilers team that finished 29th in the league went 21–27–5 with a SV% of .917, GAA of 2.55, and a positive GSAx of 5.8. The next year in 2016–17 he finished fourth in the Vezina race, tied for first in wins, and second in shutouts. Heck, even in 2017–18 he wasn’t that bad on a bad Oilers team with a .908 SV% and a -2.3GSAx. The Rangers got nothing valuable as they traded that Siegenthaler pick to the Capitals.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Doug Weight in exchange for Esa Tikkanen. This was super close to beating out Talbot’s trade. The only reason it didn’t was because Tikkanen won a cup with the Rangers. Weight was the face of the franchise during the 1990s or the darker days of the Oilers at the point. Muiltple point per game campaigns including a 104-point season. I truly don’t know how he isn’t in the HHOF yet.
Philadelphia Flyers
Best trade: Oilers acquire Janne Niinimaa in exchange for Dan McGillis
Niinimaa played seven seasons for the Oilers and actually had a few productive seasons. Those of which included back-to-back 40-point campaigns. McGillis was a solid player for Philadelphia too however and he as well also put up a few 40 point seasons. Call it a win-win.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Jeff Woywikta, 2004 first-round pick (Rob Schremp), and a 2005 third-round pick (Danny Syvret) in exchange for Mike Comrie. Comrie wasn’t anything special in Philadelphia and barely lasted there. Woywitka was a piece Edmonton used to acquire Chris Pronger.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Best Trade: Oilers acquire Rob Klinkhammer and a 2015 first-round pick (Mat Barzal) in exchange for David Perron
Context aside with what happened to the Barzal pick, this was an absolute steal at the time for the Oilers. Perron was struggling on a less than stellar Oilers team that EIGHT wins in 38 games at the point in the season. He was making a touch over $4M and had another year left on his deal. So getting back a first from a Penguins team that was mediocre that season was great value in a stacked draft. Klinkhammer suited up here and there for the team but the draft capital was important for the Oilers brass…again… let’s not talk about what happened afterwards.
Honourable mention: All the other trades the Oilers have made with the Penguins have been straight-up losses like the John Marino, Paul Coffey, and Justin Schultz trades.
Washington Capitals
Best trade: Oilers acquire a 2002 second-round pick (Evgeny Tunik) and a 2002 third-round pick (Zack Stortini) in exchange for Mike Grier
While I don’t believe Edmonton won this trade at all, they did at least get a guy who played several hundred NHL games in Stortini. The “Huggy Bear” was a fan favourite in Edmonton as he was fearless on the ice and fought everyone in sight. Even with that though, Grier was a solid middle six player played more than 1000 NHL games in his career. While his best seasons came in Oil Country, getting nothing of value in return in the deal definitely hurt the future of the Oilers.
Honourable mention: The Oilers and Washington have made so many insignificant trades with one another that nothing can go here…except when Edmonton traded Geoff Courtnall, a very good first liner to them for Greg Adams…. who played half a season for Edmonton putting up nine points.
See you guys for the final part next week where we go over the Pacific Division—which will be quite short…you’ll see why!
