Oilers on the Hunt for a Defensive Game-Changer! Ekholm’s Sized Impact Sought to Boost Blue Line

The Edmonton Oilers have reportedly compiled a list of defencemen they are gauging the market on to make a big slash to upgrade their back end, including Montreal Canadiens defenceman David Savard.

During Friday’s edition of DFO Live, Frank Seravalli mentioned that the Oilers would prefer to make a Mattias Ekholm-sized impact move for their back end. While it is certainly easier said than done, the goal for them is to help shore up the second pair that has primarily featured Darnell Nurse.

“I would guess if they could get their hands on it, a pretty sizable defenseman in terms of impact. Think if you can, like take the bat off your shoulder and do it, something like a Mattias Ekholm-sized impact. Now that’s easy to talk about a lot harder to execute. Now the other thing is we know the Oilers have been really flexible this season and Brett Kulak has provided some of that flexibility by playing on his offhand side. In an ideal world, if you could construct the ideal trade target, that person is a top four right shot defenseman that you could plug into your lineup. But it’s not a stone cold guarantee that that person that they target is a right shot guy. It could be a left shot guy.”

It is clear that by the time the trade deadline passes, the Oilers will have made at least one trade to bring in a defenceman. It remains to be seen who that ends up being because the trade market has yet to fully form, but there will be plenty of options that the team will keep tabs on.

During Thursday’s edition of Insider Trading, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was asked about what he is hearing out of Edmonton given that NHL teams are beginning to bring their pro scouts together to formulate their trade deadline plans. LeBrun noted that the Oilers want to get ahead of the cycle since the season will be interrupted by the 4 Nations Face-Off in February so they have shifted their focus on improving the blueline.

”My understanding is by the end of those pro scouting meetings is one of the priorities will be to to upgrade the blue line. Now let’s call it for what it is: The Oilers blue line has actually been better than advertised. There’s a lot of people that were concerned in that market after the offseason losses and and the changes. The reality is Edmonton entered Thursday night eighth in the league in goals against they’ve been pretty solid defensively.

But there’s also recognition within the Oilers front office that Edmonton – knock on wood – has been pretty healthy on the back end as well, largely speaking. I think there’s probably a recognition that there’s a lack of depth there if they do start to run into injuries as the season goes on. There was chatter in those meetings this week that they put together a list of names in terms of the D market and the idea is to upgrade the blue line if possible. Now that can come in a lot of different ways, Gino. In the perfect world, you add a top four D that would be the optimum, but it depends on the market, the asking price who’s available. At the very least, they would add a depth piece.

It’s early in the process. GM Stan Bowman, I’m told, has just really started to make calls around the league now to gauge the market. Part of the difficulty is that the entire Eastern Conference is still in a playoff race so there aren’t that many announced sellers in the East. But the other thing is that the Oilers front office, from what I understand, discussed this fact: They’re not going out and looking at the D market looking for a very specific type of player. In other words, could they trade for example, a shutdown penalty killing right handed D like a David Savard? For sure. In my mind, David Savard is on that Oilers list. Sure that could happen, but the Oilers are just as comfortable trading for a left handed D who is a puck mover.

In other words, they left those meetings this week saying we can be flexible here because the Oilers themselves as a blue line group have been very flexible this year. Brett Kulak has played both sides. Paul Coffey has deployed his deep bearings in different ways in game making adjustments. So the Oilers are casting a wide net as they start to make their calls in a D market. They can go left, they could go right, they could go top four, they could go depth. They’re looking at everything.”

The Oilers being in the market to improve their blueline has been among the storylines of the 2024-25 season. Back on November 19th, Bob Stauffer reported that the Oilers were going to be casting a wide net for the defence market and that includes a blueliner who can play the right side. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wrote on December 13th that the Oilers are considering both lefties and righties for their back end. Before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild, Edmonton was among the teams talking with the Columbus Blue Jackets about David Jiricek. With Bowman working the phones calling around teams, he has started the process of getting a sense of what it will cost and engaging in preliminary discussions.

This brings us to Savard, who LeBrun mentioned was one of the defencemen on the Oilers’ list. It is too early to say if he is indeed going to be available given that the Canadiens are suddenly in the thick of a Wild Card chase, but he could provide that veteran leadership to the backend while being a natural right-shot. Given that the cost to acquire his services probably won’t result in surrendering a first-round pick, he could be an attractive option for an Oilers team that is without their first-rounder for this year.

The 34-year-old has recorded 10 points (a goal and nine assists) through 35 games this season while leading the team in blocks with 90 and dishing out 31 hits. Savard is a pending UFA at year’s end and carries a cap hit of $3.5 million, so getting him on at double retention could be what easily fits him into the fold should he be who the Oilers acquire.

In any case, Edmonton is getting their work started on the defensive trade market and it seems to be simply a matter of who they end up with and not if this deal comes to fruition.