Quoting: CD282
I'm not sure you noticed, but the Oilers were the 5th best team in the league since December 30th. They need to solidify their forward corps, their defense is fine as is. The change December 31st? Yamamoto was brought up and it allowed Tippett to split McDavid and Draisaitl. More work is needed still.
I'm not sure if you noticed, but the reason they were the 5th best team was their forward core. Draisaitl and McDavid were pretty much outscoring teams all game long. It's why EDM rank top 5 in goals for. Plus, semi-decent goaltending from Smith and Koskinen. Their defence has still been bad from an analytical standpoint. It gets penned in. I don't know if you've noticed this, but offence wins games. It does, defence wins championships. Look at ROR Pietrangelo, Parayko and the blues. Letang, Sid and the Pens. Carlson, Backstrom, Kempny, Orlov and the Capitals. Keith Seabrook, Toews and the Blackhawks, Doughty, Martinez, Muzzin Kopitar and the kings. Bergeron, Chara and the Bruins. Edmonton don't have that. It's common knowledge that defensively McDavid is horrific and that offensively he is spectacular. RNH leaves defensive question marks, Draisaitl spends more time on the wing than down the middle. Edmonton don't have that top core defence and they don't have that defensive forward to help push things along either. Even if you just look at last years final 4. Carolina, known for a great D core, Jordan Staal is a great 2 way player, that's common knowledge. San Jose, Karlsson Vlasic and Burns hadn't suddenly aged 30 years in a day and Couture is a solid 2 way center. St Louis I've mentioned, and Boston with McAvoy, Chara, Krug, and so on. Edmonton's D isn't that calibre and it needs improvement if they want to win the cup. This is a deal that works for them because it is an upgrade. As for Carolina, it allows them to balance out their loaded D core with someone who likely hits the FA market at the end of the year anyway. It works both ways, I've put a lot of thought and number crunching into this trade.