Holland at a crossroads
While we are three days until the National Hockey League trade deadline on the surface it appears Ken Holland will do almost anything to save his job as the General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers.
TSN Hockey Insider @DarrenDreger reports that Holland has been in talks regularly with the Arizona Coyotes about Jacob Chychrun and they were progressing however they appeared to have cooled off late in the afternoon.
Dreger also mentioned the Oilers have reached out to the Columbus Blue Jackets about Vladislav Gavrikov and the Nashville Predators about Mattias Ekholm.
While it's believed Holland will circle back to all three organizations today, one has to believe one must get at least one deal done regarding the aforementioned, but which one makes sense and what would it cost to obtain their services remains to be seen.
Chychrun, a seven-year veteran of the Arizona Coyotes is the most sought-after defenceman leading up to the deadline. in 373 career games, the twenty-four-year-old rearguard has 60 goals to go along with 110 assists for 170 points and 240 penalty minutes.
Gavrikov, 27 a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets for five years has 3 goals along with seven assists in 52 games played this season. He's a free agent after this season.
While in Nashville, Mattias Ekholm who carries a cap hit of $6.25 million for the next three seasons has contributed 5 goals, 13 assists, and 18 penalty minutes in 57 games played for the Predators.
As always too, Holland must decide if adding a player makes sense and which assets can he delete so as not to affect the success of the team for the rest of the season and moving forward.
