Oilers go duck hunting and snag Henrique and Carrick from Anaheim

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Oilers general manager Ken Holland landed two birds (Ducks, as it turns out) with one trade Wednesday, bolstering Edmonton’s forward core with a pair of versatile centres from Anaheim.

In jumping the NHL trade deadline by acquiring Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick, Holland addressed two of Edmonton’s most pressing needs — somebody who can help out with scoring and more depth in the bottom six.

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Henrique and Carrick check both boxes.

The Oilers sent Anaheim their first-round pick in 2024 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025 (which becomes a fourth-round pick if Edmonton wins the Stanley Cup).

The deal also comes at a bargain basement price, with Anaheim retaining 50 per cent of both salaries (Henrique makes $5.823 million and Carrick $850,000) and the Tampa Bay Lightning eating an additional 25 per cent of Henrique’s contract in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2026.

Henrique, 34, was Anaheim’s first-line centre and put up 18 goals and 24 assists in 60 games while still managing to be a plus player on the 30th-place team in the league.

A veteran of 890 NHL games, Henrique spent the first eight years of his career with the New Jersey Devils and went four rounds deep in the 2011-12 playoffs, so he is comfortable playing two-way post-season hockey. He went to the Ducks in 2017-18 and averaged 20 goals a season in Anaheim.

Henrique shoots left and has been over 50 per cent in the face-off circle for the last six years. He’s a versatile guy along the lines of a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, somebody who can kill penalties (he has five shorthanded points this year), contribute to the power play and hold his own in a tight, playoff-style game.

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He’s also productive at five-on-five, which is important given that all of the spots on Edmonton’s power play are spoken for. Of Henrique’s 42 points, only 10 have come on the man advantage.

Carrick was a third line centre with the Ducks who checks in a six-feet and 200 pounds. He’s a physical forward who has 90 penalty minutes and seven fights this season to go along with his eight goals.

He fits the bill on a couple of fronts, providing the depth centre they’ve been looking for while also providing the grit and physicality they’ll need in a series with Vegas, Los Angeles and beyond.

Add him to a lineup that already has Evander Kane and Corey Perry and the Oilers are now even harder to play against.

Henrique and Carrick bolster Edmonton’s forward corps significantly, creating healthy competition and giving head coach Kris Knoblauch all kinds of options when putting together his bottom three lines. 

This is the third first-round pick the Oilers have dealt away in the last three years. They spent 2022 first rounder Reid Schaefer and 2023 first round pick on Mattias Ekholm at last year’s trade deadline.

Both Henrique and Carrick are eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.

More to come.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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