On Monday’s The Oil Stream episode, Tom Gazzola told Dustin Neilson that David Pagnotta from The Fourth Period confirmed the Edmonton Oilers are speaking to the Philadelphia Flyers regarding a potential trade. This apparently dates back to November when the Oilers were one of the worst teams in the league. But the player the Oilers are inquiring about is not Travis Konecny. The players they’ve been looking into are Sean Walker and Scott Laughton.
Walker, a 29-year-old right-handed defenseman, has 21 points through 59 games this season. He has also recorded 79 hits and 89 blocked shots. He spent the five previous seasons playing for the Los Angeles Kings. Laughton, a 29-year-old center, has 30 points through 59 games, along with 108 hits and 39 blocked shots.
Some Oilers analysts on Twitter have questioned Walker’s size, just being a 5’11” 191 lbs. frame. But for someone with a body that’s not as big, he certainly plays bigger than his size with the number of hits I just mentioned. One elephant in the room throughout Oil Country has been the defensive pair of Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci. Nurse sometimes plays defense like he’s trying too much to compensate for his big contract, while Ceci plays like he’s trying too little. To be fair, Ceci is given too much ice time for the player that he is, and it’s just not a good enough fit for Edmonton’s blueline. Walker might be the best and cheapest Ceci replacement available at this time. I don’t side with the Anti-Nurse crowd, but he needs a more consistent partner to help settle him the same way Mattias Ekholm helped settle Evan Bouchard.
Laughton would help the middle 6/bottom 6 in both toughness and offensive production. He also still has two years left on his current contract, so he wouldn’t be a rental; whereas Walker will be a UFA at season’s end. A lot of Oilers fans want to get Konecny, but he was just named an assistant captain a couple of weeks ago. I get a sense the Flyers would rather try re-signing him. I know Laughton was given an A too, but you have to gain cap space for your top player somehow.
Would you want Sean Walker and/or Scott Laughton? Would you not? Let me know.
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