Edited Nov. 22, 2023 at 3:25 a.m.
Quoting: Oilers_29
Any talks with draisaitl starts with laffy and Fox otherwise oilers don’t consider
Oilers after this one and when healthy: They trade Ceci elsewhere with retention and maybe a sweetener if needed, a mid pick or something.
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Schneider
Miller - Kulak
Kane - McDavid - Hyman
Nuge - Zibanejad - Lafreniere
Holloway - McLeod - Foegele
Janmark - Ryan - Gagner
BUT.... after Patrick Kane miraculously decides to try out playing with McDavid for just the rest of this season on a cheap deal.. with a vastly improved D, and these forwards...
.. A team whose offensive play keeps them in the other team's zone more often than not, mostly just requires a few D-men who are adept at advancing the puck and breaking out of their own end. The rest handles itself. But for that kind of system to work, every cog, every role has to be fulfilled equally. Tough to do but doable if all pull in the same direction (I mean, maybe at least in the regular season). Adding Miller and Schneider to the back end would be huge, in my opinion, if the Oilers can also find a goalie and figure out their confidence issues.
E. Kane - McDavid - P. Kane
Nuge - Zibanejad - Lafreniere
Foegele - McLeod - Hyman
Janmark - Ryan - Holloway/Gagner
Just dreamin away like a rainy day, Jimi Hendrix style, just lettin' it groove its own way. For sure I get that Draisaitl, Broberg and Bourgault feels too rich for an Oilers fan, because, well, Draisaitl is who he is, I get it, but you still get a bona fide #1 center in Zibanejad who will have to play 2C but is cost controlled at a much cheaper rate than Draisaitl will be soon, offering flexibility to improve the depth of the roster as the cap increases, a real sore spot for them, a 1st overall pick who is finally coming into his own, and two young, very quality defencemen.
.... and Patrick Kane maybe but very very very very unlikely.
End of the day, Fox is as untouchable as Draisaitl to his team, so it isn't an unfair ask if they want Leon to insist on a guy like Fox. But you'd have to remove Zibanejad and make it a lesser center like Chytil or Trocheck. So in other words really unlikely that gets done.