Oilers targeting 2 defensemen other than Erik Karlsson.

The Edmonton Oilers have been relatively quiet ahead of the National Hockey League's upcoming trade deadline on March 3rd, but that may be about to change.

For weeks now the Oilers have been linked to a potential blockbuster trade that would see them bring in defenseman Erik Karlsson, but the possibility of that trade materializing appears to be rapidly fading. On Sunday, Sharks general manager Mike Grier all but confirmed that he expects Karlsson to remain a Shark this season, although he didn't complete close the door to the possibility of a trade at the final hour.

It may be for this reason that the Oilers now appear to have two additional trade targets in their crosshairs, and in both cases we are once again looking at a defenseman. Both reports come to us courtesy of TSN insider Darren Dreger, who on Monday was the first to report that the Oilers have checked in on Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm.

Given that the Predators have now clearly indicated that they will be sellers ahead of the trade deadline it would make sense that they would consider moving Ekholm, who at 32 years old isn't the ideal type of player to have around when retooling or even possibly going through a rebuild of your roster.

What makes Ekholm an interesting target is that he would not be a pure rental, with 3 more years remaining on his current deal beyond this season, at a cap hit of $6.25 million per season.

The other target appears to be Montreal Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson who is currently dealing with an injury. Like Ekholm, Edmundson would not be a pure rental as he has one more year remaining on his contract beyond this season. Edmundson comes it at a much lower cap hit which could be appealing to the Oilers, with a cost of just $3.5 million per season against the cap.