One name that continues to pop up in most trade rumours involving the Edmonton Oilers is Nail Yakupov. With a talented young forward group that includes Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and now generational star Connor McDavid, Yakupov appears to be expendable.
However, I don’t believe that trading Yakupov at this time is the right course of action for the team unless the Oilers can get a top young defender like Seth Jones out of Nashville. And the chances of the Predators parting ways with Jones this off-season are basically zilch.
Before being replaced by Peter Chiarelli as General Manager in April, Craig MacTavish’s last move on the job was inking Nail Yakupov to a two-year contract extension worth $5 million, keeping him in Edmonton through 2016-17.