Reports have surfaced that Nail Yakupov requested a trade from the Oilers earlier this season. This info came courtesy of Igor Eronko, who writes for Sport-Express of Russia.
Nail Yakupov: 'I asked a trade and #Oilers gave a permission to speak to other teams, about 8 of them were interested, but smth went wrong'
— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) March 27, 2016
Yakupov, the former first overall pick is the poster boy of all the Oilers woes. He has produced at an okay clip, but has not progressed as they had expected. The Oilers rebuild is in its millionth iteration and because of it things have become rather tense. Expectations have continue to rise in Alberta and nothing has come to fruition. The thought was that when Todd McLellan was brought in, that he would bring a sense of credibility to the team. So far in his first year it is more of the same. McLellan won’t be fired, but the team is going to need to take a deeper look at the structure of the organization because things are not working.
What does one do when an organization is in this big of disrepair? I guess one of the steps may be starting to trade valuable assets (ie. Yakupov) for players that can make a tangible impact in the short term. I don’t pretend to know where the Oilers are going to go from here but I do know the only way they can go is up. Trading a player like him may be a step in the right direction.
