The Edmonton Oilers and the Ottawa Senators have been the two busiest teams on trade deadline day, so it makes perfect sense that they would work together as one team is buying and the other is selling. General managers Ken Holland and Pierre Dorian came to terms on a deal for the Oilers to add even more defensive depth.
Oilers and Senators Stay Busy
As first reported by Gord Miller
of TSN, Holland and the Oilers have acquired defenseman Tyler Ennis from the
Senators for a fifth-round draft pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. That is a reasonable
price for some veteran defensive depth.
This is the third trade the Oilers have made today as they made two separate deals with the Detroit Red Wings to acquire defenseman Mike Green and forward Andreas Athanasiou.
Meanwhile, Dorian has added a lot of draft picks to his war chest with trading both Vladislav Namestnikov to the Colorado Avalanche and Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the New York Islanders.
Dorian did a nice job of getting an asset for Ennis, who signed to a one-year, $800,000 contract last offseason.
Ennis Brings Experience to Edmonton
Scoring goals has not been a problem for the Oilers this
season with superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl terrorizing opposing
goaltenders. It has been preventing pucks from going into their own net that
has been a big concern.
With the additions of both Green and Ennis today, the Oilers
have brought in a pair of veteran blueliners who have seen about all you can at
this level. They both can bring a little bit of offense from the back end as
well.
Ennis was originally drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round (26th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. He had a tremendous rookie season in 2010-11 with 20 goals and 49 points. He finished 11th in Calder Trophy voting due to an unreal rookie class that included the likes of Jeff Skinner, Logan Couture, John Carlson and P.K. Subban just to name a few.
Injuries derailed the following two seasons for Ennis as he
missed a combined 69 games. He ended up playing in 419 games with Sabres before
being traded to the Minnesota Wild in 2017 as part of the deal that brought
Jason Pominville back to Buffalo.
After being released by Minnesota exactly one year to the day of being acquired, he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the 2018-19 season. He played in 51 games for the Maple Leafs before moving on to Ottawa.
Ennis has been solid for the Senators with 14 goals and 33 points in 61 games. He has a minus-5 rating to go along with the 50.0 Corsi-For percentage, the highest of his NHL career. He will be a nice addition to the potent Edmonton offensive while playing some smart defense.
Stay updated on all of today’s moves with our 2020 Trade Deadline: Deal Tracker.