The Edmonton Oilers made just a single trade on Deadline Day, getting forward Justin Fontaine from the New York Rangers in exchange for forward Taylor Beck.
The 2017 Trade Deadline was a quiet one for the Oilers, along with Fontaine they acquired forward David Desharnais from the Montreal Canadiens and Henrik Samuelsson from the Arizona Coyotes.
The Oilers are closing in on a playoff spot for the first time since 2006 and General Manager Peter Chiarelli said he didn’t want to shake things up when they were going so well.
“The market was thin and I just felt that these guys deserve a chance and I think the chemistry is good,” said Chiarelli.
He said that while they still have a long way to go, he had faith that the current team can break a 10 year drought.
“They’re up to the challenge up to this point so let them take it the rest of the way.”
That philosophy though didn’t stop the Oilers from acquiring some younger talent from the free agent pool in the form of 24-year-old defenseman Ryan Mantha who was drafted by the Islanders back in 2014, but never saw any NHL action.
“We’re starting to stockpile our prospects, we’ve got some good young defense coming including Ryan Mantha who we signed today(Wednesday). We’ve got to get our forwards up and running from the prospect level.”
Mantha has posted 51 points in 58 games with the Niagara Ice Dogs and has been signed to a three-year entry level contract.
Chiarelli did add that they were not pursuing a back-up goalie to replace Laurent Brossoit, who hasn’t had much ice time, while Cam Talbot has played the most games of any goalie in the NHL this season.
“We wanted to give these guys a chance, the guys that got us here, and that included LB(Laurent Brossoit) and we feel that his practices have been getting better, we feel that the effort and his performances in his games have been good and we see improvement.”
The Oilers have just 12 games left in the regular season and their next game is against the Detroit Red Wings on March 4 at Rogers Place.
With files from Adam Cook
