Insider reveals what the Oilers are willing to trade away at the deadline

With just one week left until the trade deadline, teams are starting to finalize their plans going into the trade deadline. Plenty of rumours are flying around who the Oilers will acquire, but one insider is now confirmed what they will part with in trade. According to David Pagnotta, the Oilers will trade at least their first round draft pick and a roster player, likely Cody Ceci.

Similar to the trade that brought Mattias Ekholm to the Edmonton, the Oilers are oookikg to trade a first round pick and Ceci together, perhaps with more assets, to make an improvement on defence. According to Pierre LeBrun, the Oilers already tried to offer their first round pick and Ceci to the Flames for Chris Tanev, but they declined.




Judging by the fact the Oilers have already offered their first round pick for a defenceman, it's probably that they've now moved off of top six forwards and will instead continue to pursue defenceman. Their main objective seems to be upgrading the Nurse-Ceci pair, as Ekholm and Bouchard are one of the best pairs in the league already. The team could also definitely use another goaltender as depth, but salary cap space will make that difficult to pull off.

In the next week, we'll be looking to see how much the Oilers can get with their first round pick and Ceci. Hopefully, that along with some other assets can bring the Oilers and impact defenceman similar to Mattias Ekholm - but no one on the trade market is the calibre of player he is. The remaining top defence targets on the market would be Noah Hanifin, Matt Dumba, and Sean Walker.