Matias Maccelli (Stan Szeto-Imagn Images)EDMONTON – Trades are the spice of life.
The Edmonton Oilers have executed a couple of trades already this offseason. First, they sent Evander Kane to the Vancouver Canucks before shipping off Viktor Arvidsson to the Boston Bruins on July 1st.
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Now that the frenzy in “Free Agent Frenzy” has died down, Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas have published the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast.
Coming in at just over a three-hour runtime, the duo hit on every one of the 32 NHL teams. Friedman mentioned something in the Toronto Maple Leafs section of the episode that was particularly noteworthy.
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“I heard there were three or four teams that were in on Maccelli,” Friedman revealed. “I think Boston was one, and I think Edmonton was one.”
As a refresher, Matias Maccelli was traded to the Maple Leafs from the Utah Mammoth on June 30th for a conditional third-round draft pick in 2027. Maccelli is in the final year of a contract paying him $3.425 million.
In addition to revealing two teams that were potentially in on Maccelli, Friedman also mentioned the reason for trading him in the first place.
“I think Maccelli is a really interesting bet,” Friedman began. “He got pushed out last year in Utah, not because he’s not good, but because Utah had too many of the same player – they were too small.”
Maccelli had a down year in Utah, producing only 18 points in 55 games. He is one year removed from his career-best season. In the 2023-24 season, he played in 82 games, scoring 17 goals and recording 40 assists, resulting in a 57-point season.
The most significant change from 2023-24 to 2024-25 for Maccelli was ice time. He averaged 16:14 in his career year, only to play 13:44 per game last season.
Maccelli spent the majority of the second half of the season as a healthy scratch. With that in mind, a trade was the best way for both parties to move forward.
While this trade wasn’t the spiciest, it could have been a spicy one for the Oilers. But now, we’ll never know.
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