Oilers Need To Adjust After Top Target Claimed On Waivers

The Oilers can take one name off their list of trade targets.

Defenceman Dante Fabbro, waived by the Nashville Predators yesterday, was claimed today by the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Elliotte Friedman.

The 26-year-old defenceman had fallen out of favour in Nashville, playing in only six of the team's 15 games this season. With the Predators floundering near the bottom of the standings, something had to be done.

As has been argued many times on these digital pages, Fabbro would've been an excellent fit for the Oilers' second pair next to Darnell Nurse. Unfortunately for Edmonton, a prime-aged two-way defenceman on a $2.5 million contract fits on just about every team, and the Oilers were only 11th on the waiver priority list (determined by points percentage in reverse order).

While we don't know if the Oilers did place a claim on Fabbro, it's not surprising that a team like Columbus would jump on him. It was a near thing, though, as the Blue Jackets were only a couple of spots ahead of the Oilers on the priority list, at 9th.

With Fabbro now off the market, the Oilers will have to pivot. The possibly rebuilding Predators still have one intriguing target in Alexandre Carrier. Otherwise, most of the right-handed defencemen on the market are either on the expensive side (Rasmus Ristolainen, Rasmus Andersson, Connor Murphy), or relatively unproven (Henri Jokiharju, Will Borgen, Justin Barron).

Clearly, Fabbro wasn't at the top of the Oilers' list: if they really wanted him, they could've traded for him. Predators GM Barry Trotz would've likely preferred that, seeing as he just lost a good player for nothing.

They might have seen Fabbro's $2.5 million cap hit as too expensive too early, as it would've put them back into the LTIR pool and stopped them from accruing cap space during the season.

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At any rate, it's a moot point now that Fabbro is in Columbus. We'll just have to wait a little longer to see where the Oilers turn to fill out their defence.

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