Lots of moving pieces in the Edmonton Oilers wheeling and dealing Tuesday, with prospects and draft picks flying out the door, but the bottom line is this: they badly needed a hitter, a tough-to-play-against guy in their forward group and they now have one with UFA centre/winger Trent Frederic.
Now, the Boston forward Frederic is out week-to-week with an ankle injury (he’s been seen in a walking boot) after a hit by Jake McCabe. So he’s not an immediate add-on, with the Friday trade deadline. His offence has seriously dropped off this season after 35 goals total in his previous two years with the Bruins. But whenever Frederic is ready to go at a bargain-basement 25 percent of his $2.3 million AAV on the salary cap — very tidy work by the Oilers — he could slot into the Oilers’ third line on LW with Adam Henrique.
Or at worst, he’ll be the pain-in-the-butt C they also need, although he shoots left, not right. His numbers in the face-off circle (43.9 percent in 196 face-offs) need work and he’s probably better served on the wing but he can play in the middle or the wing.
Bottom line 2: the Oilers are giving up lots of pieces for what now is a rental in Frederic, who turned 27 three weeks ago. They really need to sign the 2016 first-round pick this summer when he hits free agency, probably for quite a bit more than $2.3 million, to make this addition a bonafide past the Oiler playoff run.
Here’s how the complicated deal breaks down where the Oilers are giving up futures for now in two separate trades that will take up several paragraphs in what is a three-way arrangement with New Jersey Devils.
Step 1:
The Bruins traded Frederic (50 percent retention by Bruins on his $2.3 million AAV) to the Devils for unsigned Czech right-winger Petr Hauser, 21, playing in Viktovice.
Step 2:
New Jersey trades Frederic (50 percent retained of $1.15 million) to the Oilers for Edmonton’s highly-rated, unsigned drafted prospect winger Shane Lachance, who is the captain of Boston University as a sophomore.
Step 3:
Boston then trades farm team winger Max Jones, who was hurt in pre-season this year and never got untracked and the unsigned Hauser to the Oilers for Bakersfield’s defensive D Max Wanner, along with the second-round 2025 draft pick Edmonton got from St. Louis when they didn’t match the offer sheet on Philip Broberg and a 2026 fourth-round selection.
The Oilers are dead last in hits in the NHL — on pace for their fewest in 18 years and down 40 percent from last season — with only winger Vasily Podkolzin routinely taking the body in a forward group that’s big on puck possession. So they definitely needed an upgrade there and Frederic fills that bill — when he gets healthy.
His offence, as we said, has fallen off (eight goals, seven assists in 57 games), a little disturbing, but nobody doubts he plays the game in ill humour. The 27-year-old, a broth of a boy at 6-3 and 221 lb., is second on the Bruins with 155 hits this season. He led them with 204 in 2023-2024. Of note as a sidebar: Frederic fought Corey Perry on Jan. 7 in Boston in a game where the Oilers thoroughly dominated.
Jones (265 NHL games) has been an in-out former first-round pick of Anaheim. He’s another big body but has been in Providence in the AHL (13 goals, 38 games) after just seven with the Bruins this season. He’s a fourth-line NHL depth player at this point and might go to Bakersfield.
Giving up Lachance a gamble
The Oilers giving up the 6-5, 218-lb. winger Lachance, 21, a former sixth-round draft in 2021, is definitely a gamble as one of their top 3 forward prospects along with Matt Savoie and Sam O’Reilly (London Knights). But it’s the price of doing business for an Oilers team that is, as everybody knows, in a win-now mode.
He played on the same first-line with San Jose’s fine rookie Macklin Celebrini, last season with BU. And Lachance being named captain of his college team as a sophomore is very rare stuff, showing his leadership trait. He’s also been close to a point-a-game this season (25 points in 32 games), and there was conjecture he might leave school after this college season to sign with the Oilers. His dad Scott played 819 NHL games on the back end.
The right-shot Wanner, a seventh-round 2021 selection, who played junior in Moose Jaw, has also been a much talked-about prospect as a defender. He’s just back in the AHL, in his second AHL season, after he took a puck in the head earlier in the season in Bakersfield. He’s only played 22 games. Possibly, the waiver claim months back of Bruins’ prospect Alec Regula, also a right-shot D, made Wanner expendable in the organization, although Regula (knee) hasn’t played a single game this season and is on LTIR.
The Oilers surrendering that second-round 2025 Blues compensation in the fall-out of the Blues’ unmatched offer sheet for Broberg is a kick in the head. They now have no first-rounder (traded to the Flyers to take O’Reilly late in round one in 2024) and no second this June. They still have their third for Dylan Holloway.
Hauser, you say? He’s another big forward. The Devils’ fifth-round pick in 2022 is from Plzen, so he probably knows his beer, but his stats in the top Czech League are, um, underwhelming. He has one goal and 11 points in 63 games over three seasons with Sparta Praha, Plzen and currently Viktovice.
Bookmark our website and support our journalism:Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.