The Edmonton Oilers have had one of the most interesting campaigns this season. They started their 2023-24 campaign with a 3-9-1 record which led to them firing Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson and replacing them with Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey. It also led to the American Hockey League (AHL) demotion of goaltender Jack Campbell who was replaced by Calvin Pickard. Now that the Oilers have bounced back in a big way — having recently gone on a 16-game winning streak which was snapped by the Vegas Golden Knights— they will likely look to go all-in at the 2024 Trade Deadline and bring in some assets to bolster their roster heading into the postseason. One player they could look at is a Pittsburgh Penguins forward who hasn’t been given a contract extension yet, leading to trade rumours.
Guentzel is a 29-year-old left-shot forward from Omaha, Nebraska who stands 5-foot-11, weighs 181 pounds, and was drafted by the Penguins in the third round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft at 77th overall after a strong season in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with the Sioux City Musketeers where he scored 29 goals and added 44 assists for 73 points through 60 games. He would join the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the NCAA the following season and remained there until the conclusion of the 2015-16 season. Over three seasons in the NCAA, Guentzel scored 40 goals and added 79 assists for 119 points through 108 games which comes out to a 1.10 points-per-game average.
To conclude the 2015-16 season, Guentzel played 11 games in the American Hockey League with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins where he scored two goals and added four assists for six points. He would get his first taste of NHL action in the 2016-17 season where he played 40 games scoring 16 goals and adding 17 assists for 33 points. The 2017-18 season was his first full season in the NHL, where he scored 22 goals and added 26 assists for 48 points through 82 games. He exploded offensively in the 2018-19 season, scoring 40 goals and adding 36 assists for 76 points through 82 games.
At the time of this article, Guentzel has scored 219 goals and added 246 assists for 465 points through 502 games in his NHL career which comes out to a 0.93 points-per-game average. His offensive ability has proven to be his best asset at both even strength and on the man advantage, and he’s someone who could make a difference for the Oilers no matter where they put him in the lineup.
Bringing Guentzel in would likely boost the Oilers’ second power-play unit, and would likely make their top-six the most dangerous forward group in the NHL. Unfortunately, there is the risk of Guentzel going elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent — he is on the last year of a five-year contract that pays him $6 million annually — but the Oilers should still go all-in for a player of his caliber. If he can help lead the team to a Stanley Cup, there’s no issue with him leaving after this season.