COLUMBUS — Ken Holland parted with a first-round pick for a rental on Wednesday, a year after dealing away a first-round pick and first-rounder Reid Shaefer in the trade that brought in Mattias Ekholm.
You want all in? That’s all in, folks.
With Friday’s National Hockey League trade deadline looming, the Edmonton Oilers GM had more areas of his roster that fans wanted upgrades to than he has cap space or assets.
So he settled for a traditional method of upgrading his forward ranks: add two centremen in Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick — likely the third- and fourth-line centres, respectively, on this roster going forward.
Centres can play anywhere. Wingers cannot.
That likely shifts Ryan McLeod out of the 3C spot that he may one day grow into — but is not yet ready to pilot through four playoff rounds — and could lift McLeod back up to right wing on the second line. Or Henrique, 34, whose father-in-law is former Maple Leaf Steve “Stumpy” Thomas, sidles up beside Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the Oilers’ second line.
Who knows?
If you count McLeod as a centreman, that’s five centres in Edmonton’s top nine, plus centres Carrick and Derek Ryan on the fourth line. That’s what we call flexibility.
Carrick, 32, is a game, right-shot fourth-liner who wins 51 per cent of his faceoffs, a Leafs fifth-rounder from the Taylor Hall draft in 2010. Hall and Henrique won a Memorial Cup together with the Windsor Spitfires.
Carrick led all Anaheim Ducks centremen this season in minutes spent on the penalty kill, while Henrique was second. They rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in the entire NHL among centres, due to the fact Anaheim has logged more penalty minutes than any other NHL team.
Holland gives up his first-round pick this June, destined to be in the 25-28 range, barring a trip to the Final or a massive flame-out, and a conditional fifth-rounder in 2025 that graduates to a fourth if the Oilers win it all this spring.
And what he gets with these two players is, in many ways, what he has been striving for in Edmonton since he arrived five seasons ago: stability and flexibility.
Two veteran centres will help keep the puck out of Edmonton’s net, both on the penalty kill, in increased faceoff proficiency, and veteran presence inside a growing defensive posture being adopted by the Oilers.
It will make it harder for Dylan Holloway to find minutes, sure. But the fact Holloway wasn’t dealt away in this deal is testament to the value Holland sees in the young forward.
As noted by PuckPedia, after waiving Sam Gagner, these moves still leave Holland with enough cap space to acquire a defenceman with an AAV in the $1.2 million range before Friday’s deadline. And with the fact that both Carrick and Henrique are both adept penalty killers, you may well see Connor Brown and his $775,000 AAV heading out the door to make room for that upgrade on the blue-line, marking an end to one of the more forgettable free-agent signings in team history.
Henrique is a veteran centre who has been over 50 per cent in the faceoff circle for six straight seasons. He also averaged about a 22-25-goal pace over that span.
“It takes time. As a young player, it’s difficult to come in and play centre and take faceoffs,” Henrique told me in Anaheim last month. “These guys have been doing it for a long time in the league. With time, I got better.”
He’s been on the block before, traded by New Jersey to Anaheim. But this year he really saw a move coming.
“Every year you seem to hear it,” he said. “So now my contract’s up, so there’s more behind that. We’re as ready as we can be, my family and I.”
