For the first time in forever, the vultures were not circling the skies over Edmonton on Deadline Day. For a change, the Oilers weren’t the first declared sellers across the National Hockey League, a team looking to dump every pending unrestricted free agent possible while 20-some other teams looked to pick their bones.
Of course, they’re not exactly the Minnesota Wild either, a team that went all in at this deadline in search of that franchise’s first Stanley Cup. But on Wednesday the Oilers simply tinkered with a playoff lineup, rather than dismantle one that was leading them down a path to nowhere, as in year’s past.
“This team deserves to see what it can do. We’ll see where it goes,” Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli said after a quiet deadline where he acquired third-line centre David Desharnais and depth winger Justin Fontaine in a pair of low-profile moves.
“I feel good,” he said when asked about his roster, headed for the first playoff series this team has qualified for in a decade. “It’s well-rounded. Still a bit of youth, inexperience in it, but we’ve got good depth on D [and] at forward. Numbers-wise, we’re OK.”
Chiarelli had slyly asked long-injured Andrew Ference to waive his no-movement clause earlier in the week. Ference complied, and Chiarelli spent much of the past few days trying to peddle the nearly retired defenceman and a draft pick to some non-contender willing to accrue draft picks for cap space.
He couldn’t move Ference, but did make a minor-league trade — sending AHLer Taylor Beck to the Rangers for former Wild right-winger Fontaine — that the GM suspects could positively impact a playoff roster a few weeks from now.
“He’s a depth player,” Chiarelli said of Fontaine. “It’s a minor move that can help our American League team and give us depth.”
On Tuesday, he acquired Desharnais from the Montreal Canadiens in a bid to shore up at centre. Again, more tinkering than overhaul.
“I see him on the third line,” said Chiarelli, whose team plays its next game at home Saturday night versus Detroit. “He’s versatile, plays well above the puck. He’s smart and he competes. I know he’s small (five-foot-seven)… but I saw him for a lot of years. He’s a good player.
“I know it’s not a real sexy add, but it gives the coaches flexibility.”
Where many believed Chiarelli would shore up his No. 2 goalie position, he declared on Wednesday that he and the rest of the Oilers brass decided the job had been earned by young Laurent Brossoit, and he’d back up Cam Talbot the rest of the way.
“We decided we would go with the goalie that we have,” Chiarelli said. “We were not after a goalie today.”
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Much of being an NHL GM is about knowing where your team is in its arc, and acting appropriately. Don’t sell when you should be buying, and don’t act like a Cup contender when you’re not one.
Chiarelli watched the Wild’s Chuck Fletcher push all his chips into the centre of the table earlier this week with the Martin Hanzal deal, and saw a GM who has built his team to the point where it’s ready to mortgage the future for a Stanley Cup run.
“What Chuck is doing I’ve done before. There’s a time to do it, and as a manager you have to figure out what that time is,” he said, referring to a 2011 Cup win as GM of the Boston Bruins. “We’re a little bit ahead of where we thought we’d be. A little bit ahead. Chuck has a great team there. We’re not there yet.
“I don’t know where we are on the arc. We’re certainly climbing up it.”
At least for a day, quietly.