Rumor: Reports of a Pat Maroon trade to the Oilers

In case you missed it last night, the Edmonton Oilers dropped yet another decision to drop to 5-12-1, good enough for 30th in the NHL overall.

The Oilers got spanked 6-3 by the Carolina Hurricanes, with goaltender Stuart Skinner allowing five goals against on just 17 shots. Yikes...

The team's lack of quality and consistency between the pipes has been its downfall for at least a few seasons now, yet GM Ken Holland has done very little to improve at the position. Short of signing Jack Campbell to a truly terrible contract and riding an aging Mike Smith for two seasons too many, Holland hasn't made significant changes to the Oilers' goal crease.

Oilers insider Mark Spector reports that Holland is "searching high and low for a goalie" but so far has come up with no solutions. Funny that...

Despite literally every Oilers fan and media member worrying for months that the Campbell/Skinner pairing wouldn't suffice, Holland did nothing to change his team's outlook in goal this past offseason.

At this point, something's got to give, right? Holland has to make a move and it's got to be a major one. Spector and TSN Oilers reporter Ryan Rishaug certainly seem to think that a trade with the Montreal Canadiens for goaltender Jake Allen may be in the works, but will that cure what ails this team?

Any goaltender short of Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, or Terry Sawchuk may not be enough to fix this team.

Rishaug also reported today that literally all options are being considered by Holland, but he will not trade the team's 1st round pick, McDavid or Draisaitl. What's interesting though is that Rishaug mentions Minnesota Wild forward and former Oiler Pat Maroon as a trade option for the ailing Oilers.

From Rishaug:

I'm not sure how any serious hockey analyst can look at this team and think that Pat Maroon, of all players, is the key to turning things around but... well... this is the Edmonton media we're talking about. If there were ever a group of folks who love themselves un-skilled 4th liners it's Edmonton sports journalists.

Surely the team can't carry on this way without a major shakeup though. And, yes, the firing of former head coach Jay Woodcroft and replacing him with Kris Knoblauch was a major shakeup, but that move doesn't get to the heart of what ails the Oilers. They need major changes in goal. Period. There's no way around it.

The longer this team continues to languish, the more you have to really worry about the futures of superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The pair simply can't stand for losing anymore, can they?

A couple clips of the pair, especially McDavid, helped re-ignite some trade rumors amongst the team's fanbase who claim that neither McDavid nor Draisaitl are long for Edmonton.

Check it out:

Yeesh... talk about a '1000 yard stare'. 

McDavid looks like a shellshocked combat veteran.

Then there's this clip of the pair consoling each out through yet another bad loss:

If the Oilers were to strip everything down, take McDavid and Draisaitl out of the picture, it would take them years to recover. Frankly, what else do you have with this team beyond those two? Darnell Nurse and then a bunch of support players who mesh with with McDavid and Draisaitl... that's about it. 

This is a poorly constructed roster that stands no chance of winning unless their two superstars perform like superstars nightly. That's simply asking too much from too few and it's not the way that Stanley Cup contenders are built. It's time in Edmonton to start building a real team that doesn't put all of its eggs in the baskets of just two players.