BREAKING: Edmonton Oilers complete trade to acquire 900 game NHL veteran

Moments ago, NHL insider Pierre LeVrun dropped the bombshell report of what's becoming the Oilers first trade deadline acquisition. According to LeBrun and Elliotte Friedman, the Oilers are close to finalizing a trade for Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick of the Anaheim Ducks.

Henrique is now 34 years old, and is just ten games shy of 900 career NHL games. Throughout his career, he's been a reliable 20 goal contributor to the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. In his career, he hasn't seen much of the playoffs, just one run to the Cup Finals with New Jersey in his second season, and then getting swept with the Ducks in 2018. Henrique is having a career highlight year so far, scoring an impressive 18 goals and 42 points in 60 games with the abysmal Ducks team. However, he has an incredibly bloated contract of $5.8M which will be hard to fit on the team.

Sam Carrick is a much more minor player in the deal as a physical bottom six forward. In 61 games this season, Carrick's scored 8 goals and 11 points, and has amassed 90 penalty minutes with his pest style. For just $850K for the rest of this season, he'll give the Oilers a tougher look in their bottom two lines.


According to early reports, the return will be a first round draft pick and a conditional pick. The Ducks retained 50% salary on Henrique as well.


Henrique will likely slot in and take the role that Nick Bjugstad had on the Oilers last year - a third line centre with some ability to move up the lineup. Introducing Henrique to the lineup may bump out a number of bottom six forwards like Dylan Holloway or Derek Ryan - and it's pretty much the nail in the coffin for Sam Gagner playing any more games.

In all honesty, if this turns out to be the Oilers only big move at the trade deadline, it will be an incredibly underwhelming year. After the Oilers had such a terrible start to the year and have been able to claw back near the top of the league, this team clearly deserved an elite acquisition to push them over the jump in the playoffs. We'll have to see how these two players acclimate and fit with the team, but right now, it feels like a bit of letdown for Oilers fans.