For the last little while, there have been rumours swirling that P.K. Subban may be dealt to the Edmonton Oilers this offseason. Since the Oilers are rather deep in terms of young talent up front, the suggestion has been that the Canadiens may try to orchestrate a blockbuster deal involving their star defenceman, with the intent of strengthening their forward corps.
These rumours have been going on for some time, and have caused quite the stir as people hypothesize about what such a deal could look like. But hold on, because Darren Dreger took to the radio this morning, and had some pretty big information about this supposed trade.
“Specific to Edmonton, I mean Peter Chiarelli just told me point blank that there is no conversation, very likely wouldn’t be any conversation. This is all just industry fodder… Long shot at best doesn’t even describe how far-fetched that might be, specific to Subban.”
Now, Dreger did also say that there is still a chance that Subban could be dealt somewhere. That much was confirmed by Marc Bergevin in his end of year press conference, when he would not identify any player as untouchable. For now, at least based on Dreger’s conversation with Chiarelli, Edmonton is a very unlikely landing spot in any hypothetical deal.
And really, the Oilers figure to be the only hypothetical trade partner left on the board. With that aforementioned pool of young forward talent that they have, and their gaping hole on the back end, they really look like the only team that would make sense for a blockbuster involving Subban.
Now that they appear to be out, the Subban trade rumours should probably be put to bed altogether. Unfortunately, this is Montreal hockey, so we should probably expect more rumours to swirl until his no trade clause kicks in on July 1.
