Oilers going for fit over flash with Dickinson, Dach acquisitions
The Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks have made two trades this week, as the Oilers look to improve their roster and push for the playoffs, while the Blackhawks have added valuable draft capital.
Defenseman Connor Murphy along with forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach now belong to Edmonton, and they netted the Blackhawks a 2027 first-round pick and 2028 second-round pick.
While these moves don’t do much to add depth scoring to the Oilers’ roster behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they could go a long way toward improving the team’s overall defensive structure, which would be a welcomed improvement for the two-time reigning Western Conference champions.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why bottom-of-the-lineup additions like Dickinson and Dach may be the right moves for the Oilers.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Stan Bowman continuing to spend. He moves out a first round pick and the Andrew Mangiapane contract. Mangiapane cleared waivers a few days ago. He brings in Jason Dickinson, one of the better defensive centermen in the NHL, a guy who picked up Selke votes a couple of seasons ago in Chicago and also Colton Dach, 23-year-old bottom six winger… So the Oilers looking for some physicality. They get Dach and Dickinson for their bottom six. I’ll be honest, a little bit of sticker shock on this one, but as I hold it up, I look at this Dickinson deal. I look at the Nic Roy deal and.. if that’s the cost, that’s what Bowman kind of had to do. And again, it feels like a lot to give up for a guy who kind of ceilings and caps out as a third-line center. He doesn’t bring you a lot of offense, but I think this is even going back to our conversation yesterday with [former NHL video coach Steve Peters], Hutts, like the Oilers are going for fit over flash. Could they have maybe went and got a Bobby McMann or a top six winger and said, “Look, we gave Connor McDavid another weapon.” Sure, but they know that defensively, that’s where their issues are. They can’t keep pucks out of their net. They haven’t been able to all year. They want to make life easier on their goalie. So they go get two guys from Chicago in Connor Murphy a couple days ago and now Jason Dickinson who should help them play more structured in front of their goalies.
Carter Hutton: I think that is where they’re at, right? Where the flash and all of what the trade deadline could bring… It doesn’t matter. They have the flash. They have Leon Connor, Bouchard. They have guys are going to produce. Hyman’s going to do that. Now it’s like, can we keep the puck out of our net? Because you are married to your goaltending situation now, right? So now you’re in a situation where we flipped our guys and we have Jarry, we have Ingram. This is what we’re running with. How can we insulate them? How can we protect them? So you’re going into this trade market and teams know you’re desperate to try to defend. So instantly when you’re picking up a phone call, you’re like, “Well, I know what you’re shopping for and your value is going up because the writing is on the wall.” So I think for Edmonton, again, you lose that first round pick. But if I’m Stan Bowman, it’s kind of your window too. If I get fired and moved on from like, is that first round pick really going to affect me? My future right now is technically this year, next year. And the Connor McDavid kind of era and contract… and I think that’s the pressure of it.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…