The Edmonton Oilers made a implausible commerce once they landed Mattias Ekholm from the Nashville Predators. The Oilers acquired Ekholm and a 2024 sixth-round choose in change for Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaefer, a 2023 first-round choose, and a 2024 fourth-round choose. However, the Oilers had one other deal within the works earlier than finalizing that deal.
In line with Frank Seravalli, the Oilers had been in deep conversations with the Arizona Coyotes to accumulate defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
“Within the final hour earlier than making the deal, I had the tweets queued up able to tweet that the Oilers had been getting Jakob Chychrun.” – @frank_seravalli
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Seravalli says the wildest half concerning the Ekholm deal is that the Oilers virtually made a commerce for another person and he had the tweets all lined up and able to publish as a result of that’s how shut the Oilers obtained to touchdown Chychrun.
He defined:
“I can take you contained in the Oilers’ warfare room on the time as a result of the statute of limitations is expiring. Within the final hour earlier than making the deal, I had the tweets queued up, able to tweet that the Oilers had been getting Jakob Chychrun, or that they had been in deep discussions with Arizona to get Chychrun. So at the same time as a lot because the deal looks like a slam dunk now, and I feel Ken Holland particularly at all times leaning extra towards Ekholm than Chychrun, it got here down to love a worth factor, of like, ‘Hey Nashville retains type of pushing this alongside are we keen to pay as a lot’. It was by no means like even that day it was by no means 100% Ekholm.”
Think about the Distinction for the Oilers With out Ekholm
How fascinating issues would have been if the Oilers had traded for Chychrun as a substitute of Ekholm. Ekholm has match like a glove and has been top-of-the-line trades the staff has made within the final decade. He’s a pacesetter, he’s taking part in an enormous quantity of minutes, and he’s been an unimaginable mentor to Evan Bouchard.
However, Chychrun has been nice in Washington, however he made a cease in Ottawa first and didn’t stick. It’s arduous to understand how he would have fared with the Oilers.
Subsequent: NHL Commerce Discuss’s 2024-25 High 20 Commerce Bait Board 2.0
