The beauty of sports is that in certain sports there can be trades between clubs and or teams. This means that players can be traded between teams and clubs if the coaches think that it is the best decision they are making for the team. Most often than not in the USA and Canada sports such as Baseball, Football, Ice hockey and basketball do these trades all the time.
The players are told well in advance of the trade and sometimes even encouraged to take the trade as the trade is good for all parties concerned. Players are always aware that the more wins they score and leagues them win the more money and perks they are to be awarded.
When it came to the Oilers that’s exactly what happened. Two-time Norris trophy winner, three-time Stanley Cup champion Duncan Keith is on his way to the Edmonton Oilers from the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers are giving up defenseman Caleb Jones, who would likely have been left unprotected in the Seattle expansion draft, and a third-round 2022 draft pick.
The Blackhawks are not retaining any of Keith’s $5.5 million cap hit for the next two seasons, which is a big swallow for the Oilers. It’s something Edmonton wanted but the Hawks dug in. The Oilers may also have been trying to get Chicago take goalie Mikko Koskinen, who has one year left at $4.5 million, as part of the deal but the Hawks weren’t buying.
The Oilers also weren’t giving up one of their best prospect forwards in Ryan McLeod or young defenseman Ethan Bear in any Keith negotiation. Now, the Oilers might buy out Koskinen even as they try and re-sign Mike Smith to a new deal. Keith, who turns 38 on Friday, had told the Blackhawks he wanted to be traded to a team in Western Canada or in Seattle to be closer to his eight-year-old son Colton, who lives in Penticton, B.C.
