Friedman: "I don't know if I believe" Oilers' core available via trade

Elliotte Friedman was on Calgary’s Sportsnet 960 on Tuesday afternoon.

On what happens in Edmonton with the Oilers:

"I think they did a lot of soul-searching on Sunday after that game on Saturday night. I have been told – I’ve been told this by Craig MacTavish before and I believe it again – they want to do anything before they fire the coach. They feel that he doesn’t have the strongest roster, and they feel they’ve fired so many coaches. If MacLellan was available, would that change? I don’t know. But I don’t think that’s what they want to do.

“I think they would like to make a trade. All of the sudden, they went from the core guys not being available to suddenly the core guys maybe be available. I don’t know if I believe that. I don’t think they’re trading Taylor Hall or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Related: The Frustration Tracker: NHL Insiders on the Edmonton Oilers

“But the one thing I do think is they want to start making people uncomfortable. And I think that’s why this story came out the way it did on Sunday and Monday. I think they want their players to know, ‘If you think this is going to just be the coach and not you, that’s not the way we’re dealing with it anymore. We expect you guys to start living up to your end of the bargain.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey