What Trent Frederic, Max Jones could mean to Oilers

EDMONTON — Bigger, younger and more physical.

If you’re like me, and felt that the Edmonton Oilers‘ Bottom 6 was too old and neither fast nor physical enough, Tuesday’s acquisition of wingers Trent Frederic and Max Jones — two American-born 27-year-olds born six days apart in February of 1998 — should make you happy.

Now, there are caveats: How badly injured is Frederic, and is Jones even an NHL player? And we’ll discuss those.

But in return for acquiring Frederic — whose salary was laundered through New Jersey — and Jones, the Oilers dealt away two prospects in defenceman Max Wanner and big Boston University forward Shane LaChance, plus second- and fourth-round draft choices in the ’25 and ’26 drafts, respectively.

So, here’s our hot take on the trades:

• The Oilers have an energy problem. They’ve got one way to get a spark — when the puck crosses the goal line — and losing their most physical forward in Evander Kane this season has exposed the Oilers as the least physical team in a 32-team league.

Frederic and Jones (if he plays here) both have good foot speed for men who measure six-foot-three and better than 215 pounds. And both, particularly Frederic, will finish checks on the forecheck, a skill that has gone lacking among Edmonton’s aging Bottom 6.

If energy, faster starts, increased size and physicality, and the hope that some in-your-face hockey by a few will draw more Oilers into that fight is the wish, there is no reason to think this deal doesn’t take Edmonton’s roster in the right direction.

• The biggest immediate concern around Frederic is his health.

He’s missed three games with a foot/ankle injury, after being hurt on Feb. 25 and listed then as “week-to-week.” He was wearing a boot last week, but seen at Sunday’s game without the boot and walking freely — for what that’s worth.

Scouts call Frederic a “Middle 6” winger, which means his skills are suited to a third-line role, but he has the speed and skills to step up beside a Top 6 centreman for stretches.

Now, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch likes his third line of Adam Henrique between Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown, using them against opponents’ top lines. So Knoblauch could deploy Frederic on Line 4 (maybe even at centre), or perhaps slot Ryan Nugent-Hopkins next to Leon Draisaitl and run Frederic next to Connor McDavid the way Pat Maroon did when he was an Oiler.

Frederic is a pending UFA who had 17 and 18 goals the two seasons before scoring eight goals on a flagging Bruins team this year, but we’ll assume coming to a contender would rejuvenate the player somewhat.

His goals come from the dirty areas where playoff goals are so often scored, and keeping the flies off of McDavid is a realistic task, though he’s more than likely a Bottom 6 guy, as we’ve expressed here.

Giving up two draft picks and prospects for Frederic makes sense if the Oilers can re-sign him in the off-season. If it turns out to be a pure rental, he’d better be leaving with a Stanley Cup ring for this deal to make sense.

• Jones is that former first-rounder (24th overall in 2016) who is currently enduring an identity crisis: he’s never going to be a first-line points producer in the NHL that he was with the OHL’s London Knights, but with his speed and size he could still have a long career as fourth-line guy who plays responsibly, hits and maybe even drops the mitts once in a while.

Where Frederic is a “Middle 6” left-winger, Jones is “Bottom 6” all the way, a guy who has to play in straight lines, use his heavy body, get in on the forecheck and punish defencemen. That’s all you’re asking of this player — but something the Oilers do not have enough of.

He has one year left on his contract at $1 million, which puts him on the fence as an inexpensive depth forward in Edmonton next season, or a guy in AHL Bakersfield who doesn’t count against the Oilers’ cap.

Jones is now on his third team, a year away from being a UFA. Sometimes being the team who gets a certain player at the right moment in his career can be good: think Andrew Cogliano in Anaheim, or when the Oilers landed a troubled Zack Kassian, who was determined to resurrect his career.

That story is usually up the player to write.

• In the end, Edmonton used just $575,000 in cap space to make this deal happen — assuming that either Jones goes to Bakersfield or whomever he replaces in the Oilers lineup does the same (Matt Savoie, Kasperi Kapanen…).

In Frederic, they have their depth forward. Now they need a defenceman and, in a perfect world, a winger for Leon Draisaitl.

My prediction: With Kane an unknown, GM Stan Bowman will trade a Kane or another player to open the cap space needed to get a second-line winger, and add a defenceman.

And if Kane won’t agree to finishing the season on LTIR, then he becomes your winger and you hope he’s any good after missing almost a calendar year.

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Oilers acquire Frederic in three-team deal with Bruins, Devils

Bruins trade forward Max Jones to Oilers for prospect, two picks