On Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman's most recent podcast, he revealed a crazy plan by the Edmonton Oilers that could have involved acquiring Habs forward Josh Anderson. The NHL whistleblower went through his sources to find out what was discussed behind the scenes as a trade, but didn't necessarily materialize. One of them revealed a bombshell by mentioning that the Oilers would have considered acquiring a big winger like Timo Meier or Josh Anderson, in order to keep him to finish the season and, obviously, for the playoffs. And then, the plan would have been to trade him again, during the summer. Yes, yes, you read that right! <q>Some teams, like the Edmonton Oilers, have seriously tried some strategy. What if we acquired a player (like Meier) for the end of the season and for the playoffs, and then delayed our big decisions until next summer. I think that's become an idea that they've seriously tried to do. (Edmonton officials) I'm confirmed that they've made a serious trade offer, along those lines. [...] What's most interesting is that someone (very knowledgeable) told me: here's the bet, and here's the Edmonton plan. Let's say they acquire a Meier (or a Josh Anderson), they put him on a trio with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, on an extremely dominant trio, and if the winger in question significantly increases his production with Draisaitl and McDavid (which obviously should happen), you can trade him back in the draft, at a higher price. This is a situation where you could make sure that Meier's value at the trade deadline is X value, but at the draft, after a big end of the season producing with McDavid and Draisaitl, his value would be made X+Y value. I think that was Edmonton's plan. - Elliotte Friedman</q> That would have made for a damn good show, and twice as good as one, at that! To summarize, following Friedman's information, here is what the Oilers' plan would have been. 1- Acquire Josh Anderson, from the Montreal Canadiens, for a 2023 first round pick. 2- Put Anderson on a three-man roster with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, thus putting Anderson in the best position to score a lot of goals and points. (which increases his trade value a lot) 3- Take advantage of Anderson's valuable services to finish the season, and especially, for the 2023 playoffs. 4- Trade Josh Anderson again, in the draft, for a 2023 1st round pick, and more. This could have definitely become a big move for the Oilers. They would have paid a lot of money to acquire him on a term contract, and then use him as a rental player for the rest of the season. Given the constraints of the payroll, he would have been traded again at a high price in the summer. This is a very interesting management philosophy, which could have set a precedent for a new way of doing things, by adding another type of transaction at the trade deadline. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1634222719234392066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1634222719234392066%7Ctwgr%5E55f753edc8d634524da981e8e76ad340932efd52%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.habsetlnh.com%2FJosh-Anderson-aux-Oilers-et-echange-a-nouveau-au-repechage-Elliotte-Friedman-vient-de-reveler-une-enorme-strategie-tentee-par-Edmonton-a-la-date-limite-217111'> </a></blockquote></div> Credit: <i> href='https://www.habsetlnh.com/Josh-Anderson-aux-Oilers-et-echange-a-nouveau-au-repechage-Elliotte-Friedman-vient-de-reveler-une-enorme-strategie-tentee-par-Edmonton-a-la-date-limite-217111' class='link_marker' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>HabsetLNH.com</i>