Oilers trades so far are a bust. They lost speed and youth. They are slow, old and not as good as last years team. They aren't going anywhere this year with that D and Skinner.
They didn't really make many "trades" per se. They lost a couple of guys to free agency who are now being paid far more than they should have for the role we would have had them in. Foegele is one, and his speed is missed, but his inconsistency is not, and considering that we got J. Skinner for roughly the same price, I think we're fine. Losing Desharnais doesn't affect our team speed one bit. The McLeod trade hurts our team speed for sure, but that's really the only part of his game that we are missing so far. The real tough losses are the St. Louis offer sheets. Broberg is playing well, and we could sure use him on our 2nd pair right now. Holloway seems to be doing well, and losing his speed and physicality also hurts a lot. Really, we lost two guys that are really hurting the team a lot right now.
I think the guys we are missing the most right now are Cody Ceci and Evander Kane. I'm not sure what to expect of Kane when he returns from his injuries, but he will be a welcome addition for sure, even if he isn't a speedster either. I expect we will add another RD later in the year. I'm hoping they can sort out one of the depth RD that can fill in for Nurse as a stop gap. Stecher has played well so far, his only major downfall is his size, but if he can hold the fort down with Nurse until they can find a trade, then the team will be fine. I think most of the Oilers issues so far are not personnel based. They need to get their special teams going, and they need to figure out the defensive system that the coaches have in place. Overall, its way too early in the year to say that the Oilers aren't going anywhere. They had an awful start last year too. Losing games this early could affect playoff seeding a bit, but overall, there is time to work out the kinks.
