Insider Says Oilers Are Focused on Landing Blues Defenseman

With less than a week until the March 6 trade deadline, the Edmonton Oilers’ focus is pretty clear: add. Their priorities have flip-flopped in recent months between adding up front or on the back end, and while in an ideal world they’d still like to do both, an insider has revealed that they’re fixated on one particular right-shot defenseman.

---

According to Frank Seravalli, that blueliner is Justin Faulk of the St. Louis Blues, who landed at number two on his recently updated Top 50 Trade Targets board.

Seravalli wrote:

“The Edmonton Oilers are one of a few teams fixated on Blues defenseman Justin Faulk, the No. 2 player available on our Trade Targets board. Faulk has had a fantastic season in a down year for most of the rest of the Blues. But Edmonton can’t acquire Faulk without first dumping Andrew Mangiapane – and that could require attaching a pick in a separate transaction,”

The 33-year-old Faulk is in year six of the seven-year, $45.5 million contract he signed with the Blues in 2019 after being acquired from the Hurricanes. He’s having a solid season despite St. Louis’ struggles, with 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) produced in 58 games.

Faulk does have a partial no-trade clause, though you’d have to imagine he’d be interested in joining a contender like Edmonton at this stage of his career should the opportunity present itself.

As Seravalli notes, to make this work, GM Stan Bowman would need to find a way to either include Mangiapane in a return package to the Blues or move his contract in a separate deal. On the surface, that sounds simple enough, but the Oilers have been unsuccessful in finding Mangiapane a new home for months now, so it’s far easier said than done.

If they are able to figure that out, though, Faulk would be a solid acquisition to bolster the blue line for a playoff run this season and next, with another year under contract beyond 2025-26 — something this front office has always valued as opposed to a rental.

There will be no shortage of competition, however, as the Bruins, Canadiens, Sabres, Red Wings, Stars, and Mammoth have all recently been linked to the Faulk sweepstakes.

Next: Momentum Building Toward Sergei Bobrovsky to the Montreal Canadiens?