Edmonton Oilers have addressed an identified need up front, even as their fans may have to wait a bit to actually see him play.
As per the above, the Oilers acquired physical forward Trent Frederic from Boston Bruins in a three-way deal involving New Jersey Devils that also saw veteran forward Max Jones and prospect Petr Hauser. The cost of doing business is in the linked release, repeated in full here:
To summarize: Frederic, who is currently on (short term) injured reserve, comes to Edmonton with 75% of his salary retained, reducing his cap hit from $2.3 million down to $575,000 for the remaining ~quarter of the NHL schedule. He will be UFA at season’s end. The Oilers also acquired 2 other players of marginal value.
In exchange goes a small haul that includes two of Edmonton’s better prospects in Max Wanner and Shane LaChance, along with the second round pick that represents the entirety of the Philip Broberg compensation as well as a fourth-rounder in 2026.
It seems a high price to pay for a bottom-6 forward struggling through a difficult season, but conforms with Edmonton’s WIN NOW mandate.
Frederic is a big man at 6’3, 221 lbs with first round pedigree. He’s been a full-time NHLer for the last 5 seasons and has shown something of a scoring touch in recent years. In 2024-25 however his production has dropped and his plus/minus has plummeted.
His player page from Hockey-Reference.com provides important details in the selected columns shown here. He plays bottom six minutes, averages about 2 hits a game, 1 penalty minute per game, and a point every 3 games equally split between goals and assists. Listed as a centre, he has a poor record on the faceoff dot and was Boston’s seventh choice for taking draws in 2024-25. As a left hand shot he does not address the Oilers’ deficiency of right-shot faceoff options.
But he does address a few other shortcomings, notably with that physical element. He immediately becomes the biggest forward on the team. His 119 hits this season would rank behind only Vasily Podkolzin among Oilers forwards, and is more than double the next man (Kasperi Kapanen, 52). He’ll fill a void on a club that ranks dead last in the NHL in hitting.
Or at least he will, when he’s healthy enough to play. Frederic was injured a week ago today and was subsequently placed on IR by the Bruins with a lower-body issue, where he was considered “week-to-week”. Here’s the latest from RotoWire, issued earlier today before the trade went down:
More to come.