The Edmonton Oilers made a trade with the New York Rangers on Wednesday afternoon. Edmonton was given the rights to former 3rd round pick Jayden Grubbe. In return, New York was given a fifth round pick in this summer’s upcoming draft. Shortly after, the Oilers signed him to a three-year entry-level contract before the June 1st deadline, where he could’ve found himself being a draft prospect all over again.
The 20-year-old, former 65th overall pick in 2021, a right-handed center, 6′ 3″ and weighing in at 200lbs, has put up 134 points in 194 games for the Red Deer Rebels in the WHL. This past season was his best, with 67 points in 64 games. We also learned later today that Patrik Puistola, the 73rd overall pick in 2019 who was traded to the Oilers for Jesse Puljujarvi, was not re-signing with Edmonton and will be a free agent. That essentially means we traded a former 4th overall pick turned damaged goods for nothing. But this trade was then made to make up for that planned loss.
The last time the Oilers were in this sort of position with a prospect was Justin Schultz in the summer of 2012. Schultz chose not to re-sign with the Anaheim Ducks, the team that drafted him and then signed with Edmonton. The experiment with this player to fix the need for developing a top-pairing right-handed defenseman did not work after four seasons in Oil Country. Grubbe, however, will not find himself in that same position. This week’s signing doesn’t come with the expectations that Schultz did. Grubbe doesn’t have to fix an area of need as Schultz’s intention was.
The Oilers now have only three draft picks heading into the upcoming draft. That sounds far from great, but teams with a window aren’t concerned with picks. Grubbe is closer to slightly helping the organization right now. That 5th rounder was just another green banana that Ken Holland said he wouldn’t invest in. Unless Grubbe really impresses the coaching staff at training camp, I would suspect he’ll find himself in the AHL next season. But at the same time, with how difficult it might be to re-sign key bottom six forwards, maybe he finds himself in a third or fourth-line role.
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