An insider reports the Oilers have interest in Carolina Hurricanes defender Brett Pesce.

They say defence wins championships, and this off season Ken Holland finds himself trying to improve the defence of the Edmonton Oilers.  One defender who has been linked to the Oilers in the past 24 hours by Darren Dreger is Brett Pesce. 

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Brett Pesce is a 6-foot-3 206 pound right handed defenceman. The eight year NHL veteran has been with the Carolina Hurricanes his entire career. He is entering the final year of a six year deal paying him $4.025 million per year.

Brett Pesce's 2022-23 Season

Pesce had a career high 30 points in 82 games for the 2022-23 season. He achieved that while playing 22:01 average time on ice (TOI) per game. His most common defence partner this season was Brady Skjei. They played 1343 minutes together. According to Natural Stat Trick, they had the seventh best Corsi for percentage amongst all defence pairings to have played at least 300 minutes together with 58.7%. Pesce and Skjei faced the toughest competition out of all the Hurricane's defence pairings. To be the shut down pairing for their team and still have great analytical numbers speaks to their value.

Pesce is a great defender. He is in the right place at the right time and forces opposing players to beat him. He doesn't shy away from contact, isn't afraid to block shots, and has really underrated stickhandling and shooting that hasn't been realized to it's fullest potential yet. Could playing with the high-flying Oilers unlock another level of Pesce's offensive ceiling?

Where Would He Fit On The Oilers' Blueline

Right now the pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard is all but a lock for next year. Darnell Nurse is signed long term and Brett Kulak just signed a extension with the team last off season. Pesce is better than a second pairing defender, so the logical place for him to be deployed is with Nurse. 

This could be an effective set up where the coaching staff divides the even strength ice time as evenly as possible between the Ekholm-Bouchard pairing and the Nurse-Pesce pairing. Having a defensively sound player with a more offensive one is a good mixture for the two pairings.

The Cost of a Shut Down Defender

The Oilers would need to move out salary in this deal or another one to make something work. Because Pesce would replace Cody Ceci, having Ceci go the other way makes sense. Ceci is on a cheaper deal overall, which fits in well with the Hurricanes' ownership mentality of utilizing cost effective players. Warren Foegele or Kailer Yamamoto could also find themselves included in this deal. Both make around $3M and both can fit into the Hurricanes' system without the pressure to produce offensively. Ceci + Foegele or Yamamoto for Brett Pesce and a 2023 3rd or 4th round pick could be enough to get something done.

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Regardless of the desire to improve the team's defence needs, a depth defender signed in free agency for around league minimum is more likely to happen than a trade like this. If the Oilers were to acquire Pesce it would certainly add something to the group. Ceci is still a great player and keeping him around is not a bad thing for the Oilers.