REPORT: Oilers Officially in Discussion to Acquire a Defensemen

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Skyler Walker
February 27, 2023 (9:42)

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What are the Edmonton Oilers doing? Ken Holland has been very quiet so far before the NHL trade deadline is quickly approaching in just four days time on March 3rd, the cut off time is 3PM Eastern and no trade will be allowed to be submitted after that point.

It appears that the Oilers are still in on Jakob Chychrun, but that is not the main focus right now for Ken Holland. He will reportedly be waiting to see if Chychrun's price will drop, but in the meantime Darren Dreger of TSN revealed there is currently a discussion in the works for acquiring a defensemen from the Nashville Predators.

Darren Dreger of TSN:

Interested to see how big/small Nashville's next trade will be. Sources say the Oilers and Preds continue discussions on veteran Dman Mattias Ekholm. Among the options Ken Holland is grinding away on with the deadline looming.
@TSNHockey

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period:

Ekholm's got term, 3-years left after this year, and has a $6.25M cap hit. Oilers aren't only club in this mix, I think LA's kicked this idea around too at one point, but he'd help EDM's D corps.

Ekholm is a great shutdown defensemen that can also chip in offensively from time to time, his comparable would be Oscar Klefbom, who many Oilers fans are familiar with. The issue? Ekholm has endured a few injuries over the past few years, one being more serious than the rest, it may be a risky move, but Ken Holland seems to be all over it..