The final edition in this miniseries concludes today! As I previously mentioned, this is going to a really short article. Well, first thing’s first…. the Edmonton Oilers cannot trade with themselves so that shortens the amount of teams to cover today.
Anaheim Ducks
Best trade: Oilers acquire Patrick Maroon in exchange for Martin Gernat and a 2016 fourth-round pick (Jack Kopecka)
Pretty obvious here. The Ducks dumped Maroon with three years left remaining on his deal for basically nothing. Right away, the “Big Rig” made a huge impact. He scored in his first game with the Oilers in a 4–0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers back in March 2016 and finished the season with 14 points in 16 games playing with Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl.
Maroon then became a key contributor on the Draisaitl and Connor McDavid line in 2016–17 scoring a career high 27 goals and 42 points. He’d have 30 in 2017–18 before being sent to NJ. His best and most productive years came in Edmonton and the Oilers won the trade by a landslide.
Honourable mention: Oilers acquire Adam Henrique (75% retention) and Sam Carrick in exchange for a 2024 first-round pick (traded up to select Stian Solberg), and a 2025 fifth-round pick.
Henrique was a big part in kick starting the Oilers comeback against the Florida Panthers, scoring the GWG in Games 4 and 6. He was a good 3C and will be an Oiler for the next two seasons to come. Carrick was not anything special but he did play a few games for the club at least.
Calgary Flames
Best trade: Oilers receive James Neal in exchange for Milan Lucic and a 2020 third-round pick (later used to trade back in the draft)
I’d say this trade honestly ended up well for both teams. Neal had a solid first season in Edmonton (although most of those goals came in October) and gave the Oilers *some* much needed depth scoring. While Lucic didn’t score until December, he had a strong ended to season as he scored eight goals.
Now…we all know the league shafted Edmonton on that draft pick rule but it’s whatever at this point. Lucic collected six points in 10 playoff games that year for Calgary and would ride out the rest of his deal there, while Neal was bought out the next year opening up the roster and cap space for Zach Hyman.
Honourable mention: Oilers receive Laurent Brossoit and Roman Horak in exchange for Ladi Smid and Olivier Roy. The Oilers received a very capabale NHL goaltender in Laurent Brossoit while Smid faced injury concerns in Calgary.
Los Angeles Kings
Best trade: Oilers acquire Colton Teubert, a 2011 first-round pick (Oscar Klefbom), and a 2012 third-round pick (Danill Zharkov) in exchange for Dustin Penner.
Penner, although won a cup in L.A., never ever came close to what he was in Edmonton. He scored, six, 17 and 14 points for the Kings in three seasons. Meanwhile, Oscar Klefbom, who recently retired, was an incredible and underrated player for the Oilers. He averaged first in ice time on the backend from 2015 to 2020. He was great defensively, a strong breakout passer and had his trademark KlefBOMB of a shot. I have memories to that 2016–17 season where he showed his true top pair form. He scored 12 goals that season and that Game 5 game tying goal will always be a memory.
Honourable mention: N/A. All the other trades Edmonton has made with L.A. have been flat out losses like the Wayne Gretzky trade and the Jarrett Stoll and Matt Greene for Lubomir Visnovsky trade, or have been minor swaps like Jussi Jokinen for Mike Cammalleri and a third-round pick for Ben Scrivens.
San Jose Sharks
Best trade: None. Believe it or not, the Oilers and Sharks have only made four trades with each other with none of them involving impactful NHLers. Moves like Mike Brown, Alex Stalock, and Link Gaetz were all AHL moves.
Seattle Kraken
Best trade: None. In the three years Seattle has been a team, the Oilers have yet to trade with them. Although, they came close to an Jordan Eberle trade earlier this year before he extended.
Vancouver Canucks
Best trade: Surprise surprise, but the Oilers and Canucks have also barely made any major trades with each other.
Vegas Golden Knights
Best trade: None. The Oilers, like with Seattle, have never made a trade with Vegas in their franchise’s history.
In the end, this might not be shocking that this article is so short. Vegas and Seattle are still relatively new and are divisional rivals, and the Canucks have been a rival for the entire Oilers history. I am quite shocked to learn that the Sharks and Edmonton haven’t made a major trade with each other though. But, with the Sharks being bad and the Oilers as cup contenders, maybe we see a trade where the Sharks sell off a veteran to Edmonton at the deadline.
Thanks for reading!
