Because Keith is both ass and expensive and the Oilers gave up positively valued assets for him

"the Oilers defence just got a lot better" You haven't watched Keith play the past years

Ken Holland is amping up to his old ways in Detroit. The next step in him going full Ken Holland is to trade the 1st for less than it's worth, followed by signing a guy in FA for about 2-3 years too many.

Also, I'm laughing at the possibility that this was posted by a Ken Holland burner account

what parts of the blue line got significantly better? could this not have been done for less assets in free agency with martinez, oleksiak, hjalmersson, demers etc. etc. etc. hell even moving that exact package of jones and a 3rd for a better player than keith would be been better than this.

the blackhawks were a terrible defensive team and was Keiths stats were affected by that.

If this was 2015 sure but he’s 38 making 5,5 million and its a flat cap so many better options at that price in free agency

and any one out side of edm hasnt watched Caleb JOnes play. he will be high end a 3rd pair dman or 7th dman who can play 10mins a night. (also we would have lost him from nothing to seattle.)
Keith is no longer a top pairing guy but can comfortably play 17-20 mins a night and be effective with nurse playing top mins.

a 3rd is like 10-15% to turn into NHL player

so yes upgrade on d for the oiler.

Maybe the Blackhawks were bad defensively because they play a #6 D too much and that dman is bad...

"but can comfortably play 17-20 mins a night" Based on what?

No, I mean when he was sending 1sts for guys like Kyle Quincey (instead of drafting Vasilevskiy with that pick) just to play 4-5 games of playoff hockey.

Key here is a player needs to want to come to edmonton.... Keith wanted to I dont see Martinez or Oleksiak heading north. probably not the others either.
You take the player who can still play and wants to be in EDM
(yes it was a bit of an over pay probably should have got 1-1.5 retained and not draft pick but honestly not the end of the world)

his history. I will go off the reports of multiple reports of scouts and reporters that watched everygame of his last year and say he can. he is a fitness freak and can still skate.
He is still a good defenseman hes just not an allstar dman anymore.

I don’t mind the move, but could a guy at the veteran minimum without the resume, do the same job of being a steadying partner for bear or Bouchard? The guy that gave teeth and blood for hawks, not coming to oil with the same resolve, but 60 games and 15 minutes beside a kid, might speed up some development in a couple highly touted kids.

That's the thing, it's history. Keith has declined and he is not a good defenseman anymore. Curiously, who are those scouts and reporters?

Local radio Jason GRegor show in edmonton who talked to scouts in CHI as well as 2 GMS. Darren Dreger just said the same on edmonton radio, FRank sarvialli very similar report.

He's not making $5.5 million. He's making $2.1 million this year and $1.5 million next year.

Like @oilersguy, I don't see the reason for all the angst, either. The cap hit is a paper figure because with more than $10 million in space even after re-signing Larsson and Yamamoto and adding Blake Coleman, there's still enough room to sign a number one goalie and another key free agent. And believe it or not, Keith IS an upgrade on Caleb Jones, which is why only yesterday, Jones was the featured selection by Seattle in 75% of all Edmonton ACGMs.

It a waste of cap space is my point

bc you paid actual assets for a player that has been bad for a while, providing negative on ice results for his team while eating up a big chunk of your available cap space.

Keith doesnt many your D core better, especially now that this bones your protection list and push Larsson even closer to UFA. This could be bad, really bad for the D core

You seriously believe Gregor, Dreger and Seravalli watched the Blackhawks regularly?

the scouts and GMs that gregor talked to yes as he reached out to them cus he had not. Dreger would have watched some. and Saravalli more so than Dreger.

how many games did you watch from CHi this year?

gregor is a mouth piece for the Oilers front office, Dreger is a mouth piece for a lot of agents. The dont share their opinions for fun. They push narratives for teams who give them scoops.

this trade sucks for the oilers, they got fleeced, KAssian for captain

Im sure you have listened to Gregor alot.... as well a dreger I would say in my experience they are usually in the ball park on what they report. If they werent they would now have been inthe industry as long as they have.