Alex DeBrincat is drawing trade inquiries in Detroit, and Edmonton was named among the teams who could have interest in the scoring winger.
The core report is David Pagnotta's. He says teams have reached out to the Red Wings, while the six-team list, Edmonton included, is framed as clubs that could have interest, not confirmed suitors.
Still, the fit is worth chewing on. DeBrincat is 28, a $7.875M cap hit, coming off 41 goals and 85 points. A genuine top-line sniper.
Picture that beside Connor McDavid. A 40-goal trigger man on the wing of the best playmaker alive is the kind of finisher Edmonton has chased for years.
The catch is the cap. The Oilers are squeezed, with the Darnell Nurse situation unresolved and a goalie still to find. Adding DeBrincat's money means clearing room first.
Pagnotta's reporting frames the market.
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How DeBrincat would fit under a Mike Babcock bench
There's a coaching wrinkle, too. It's been reported Edmonton could hire Mike Babcock, though that hire isn't confirmed and has been tied to an ongoing investigation.
If it happens, the fit gets interesting. Babcock's teams have always leaned on structure and two-way detail, and a pure scorer like DeBrincat would test how that meshes with a defined system.
But goals travel in any system. A sniper who buries 40 helps every coach, and on a McDavid-Leon Draisaitl roster, DeBrincat would feast on the looks they create.
The contract angle matters for Edmonton specifically. The report says DeBrincat is in his final year and extension-eligible July 1, so the Oilers would be betting on a trade-and-extend, not a rental.
That's the rub for a cap-strapped team. Trading for him is one thing. Paying him long-term on top of McDavid and Draisaitl is another, and it likely forces a bigger reshuffle.
Here's my read: on talent, DeBrincat is a dream fit next to McDavid, exactly the finisher Edmonton lacks. On the cap, it's hard, and that's before you factor in an unproven Babcock fit. Want over feasibility, at least for now.
So the idea is tantalizing and complicated in equal measure.
Whether Stan Bowman could even clear the room to make it real is the question. The fit is obvious. The math is the obstacle.
Should the Oilers go all-in to land DeBrincat for McDavid's wing?
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