With the deadline in a month and a half, the time is here for rumours around the league to start ramping up. The Winnipeg Jets, who are near dead last in the league, are one of those teams to keep an eye on come March 6. Two names being brought up constantly are defenders Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley. The Edmonton Oilers, who are likely going to be adding one D by the deadline, are said to be interested in the duo.
“Pagnotta mentioned two names to me: Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley of the Winnipeg Jets.”
-Tyler Yaremchuk, OilersNation
David Pagnotta, who has a very iffy track record but also early on others such as the Jake Walman trade, has connected the pair to Edmonton going onto a show hosted by OilersNation. This news hasn’t really pleased Oilers fans, who want to see a major addition due to the timeline of the core the team has locked up for two to three more years. Are Logan Stanley and/or Luke Schenn really the answer to solve the the right-side of the d-core?
Would Luke Schenn be a good fit?
Luke Schenn has been around the league for quite some time. Although he has never lived up to his fifth overall expectations, that hasn’t stopped teams like Tampa and Toronto, among others, from bringing him onto their third pair for experience. Schenn is your prototypical stay-at-home defenceman, who uses his body a lot. He isn’t a strong puck mover so he’s better off being paired with one like a Morgan Rielly in Toronto or a Mikhail Sergachev in Tampa, where he won two cups as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Schenn is set to be a free agent after this season, and carries a cap hit of $2.8M, at 50% retention that would come at a cost of $1.4M.
First off, the cap hit is way too high for the Oilers to manage. Even at 50%, a $1.4M cap hit for a guy who’s likely a sixth at best is still expensive. Luke Schenn isn’t better than Ty Emberson at this point and I don’t even think he’s better than Alec Regula. Sure, Regula has had his struggles, but he has way better fluidity when he skates and actually has some solid offensive tools in his kit.
Schenn just doesn’t really provide anything at this point of his career to warrant his contract or an everyday spot in the NHL. As well, he really isn’t the Stan Bowman type. Bowman loves his younger, faster and more offensively creative players. I don’t think it’s likely Luke Schenn ends up here.
For those wondering, Luke Schenn currently sports a 40.48 xG%, 44.78 CF%, and a 42.37 HDCF%. The only attribute that could really justify Edmonton trading for Schenn is his penalty kill ability, but even then it’s not worth the contract or price to get him.
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Is Logan Stanley a viable option?
Logan Stanley is the definition of BUYER BEWARE! Stanley, like Luke Schenn, is a former first-round draft pick that hasn’t come close to his draft-day projection. Stanley is your prototypical 6’7” D who really does nothing out there, and only gets played solely because of his size.
Do not let his offensive numbers fool you this season. Before this season, Stanley’s best year was in his second season in 2021–22 where he was a +1 with 12 points, playing soft third pair minutes. Stanley is projected to be a UFA after this season and has a cap hit of 1.25M.
Stanley has a whopping eight goals and 15 points in 45 games. First thing, he’s shooting 16.7% when his average is 4.6! This is a huge red flag and an outlier. Secondly, he still gets killed out on the ice despite the uptick in production. The Jets have an xG% of 40.81 when he’s out there, a possession rate of 45.43 and as alluded, he’s on a massive PDO bender at a 1.036.
As well, unlike Schenn, he’s absolutely detrimental on the penalty kill, an area the Oilers want to improve on. Just because he’s 6’7” and having a somewhat good offensive year shouldn’t mean he should be a target. Another thing is Stanley is a left shot defenceman. The Oilers already have Mattias Ekholm, Darnell Nurse, Jake Walman, and Spencer Stastney on the left hand side. They need an actual right shot guy.
It’s clear that neither of these two would be a fit here, and would uncharacterically be a mould of a player Bowman would go after. As we move closer to the deadline, we should hear more and more players available and connected to the Oilers, and hopefully ones that make more logical sense.
