Trade between Oilers and Habs may have fallen apart.

The Edmonton Oilers may have played themselves out of a potential trade scenario.

The complete and total collapse of goaltender Jack Campbell has forced the Oilers to adjust on the fly this season and one of the expected adjustments was the addition of a new/different goaltender. It was going to be a tough task for general manager Ken Holland to find help when dealing from a position of weakness but,thankfully for Holland and the Oilers, the team and the goaltending appear to have turned things around.

Nonetheless it sounds like Holland had done his due diligence, so much so in fact that NHL insider Elliotte Friedman recently revealed that he was convinced that a trade between the Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens was only a matter of time.

"I really do think there was a time this year that I thought Jake Allen was gonna be in Edmonton," revealed Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "Now I'm not convinced that's going to happen."

Allen likely would have been brought in to help the Oilers goaltending situation but, with Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner playing well since the firing of former Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft, the urgent need for the Oilers has likely died down considerably.

It sounds like, in spite of the situation steadying itself for the Oilers, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has a price he will be sticking to if the Oilers intend to get this deal done closer to the trade deadline.

"I think what's happened there is that he's got a price that he's set, I think it's a draft pick," said Friedman.

There are two additional factors that could complicate a potential deal here, one being the fact that the Oilers may need the Canadiens to retain salary in order to get the deal done.

"There's the trade price and then there's the retention price," admitted Friedman. "And the price gets higher if there's retention."

Allen is currently earning an average annual value and cap hit of $3.85 million on his contract so the Canadiens wouldn't be eating a ton of salary, but there is an additional issue when it comes to retention and his contract. Allen is only in the first year of a 2 year deal, which would leave the Canadiens on the hook for salary retention for 2 seasons rather than just 1. You can bet that Kent Hughes will increase his asking price significantly if the Canadiens have to retain salary for 2 seasons in this trade.