Craig MacTavish once tried to sell the New Jersey Devils on a Nail Yakupov-for-Adam Larsson swap, and he got a memorable answer from Lou Lamoriello.
MacTavish said on Oilers Now that he never dealt with a manager angrier than Lamoriello that day. Larsson had been a healthy scratch, and that was enough for MacTavish to test the waters.
“I thought there might be an opportunity,” he said. Lamoriello wasn’t interested.
“No, I’m not trading Adam Larsson for Nail Yakupov,” MacTavish recalled him saying, adding that the Devils GM “was pretty angry.”
The irony, of course, is that Edmonton eventually landed Larsson anyway, just not in that deal. The Oilers got him later in the one-for-one trade that sent Taylor Hall the other way.
Yakupov’s time in Edmonton never matched the hype around a first-overall pick. He put up 17 goals as a rookie, but his game never really took off in the NHL.
There had even been talk at the time that the Oilers preferred Larsson, though rumors say owner Daryl Katz stepped in and pushed the team toward the flashier forward instead. Edmonton hoped Yakupov could become a scoring winger who fit around its top pieces.
That never happened.
After four seasons, the Oilers sent him to St. Louis in 2016 for a prospect and a conditional third-round pick.
He played 98 more NHL games before heading back to Russia. MacTavish still remembered him fondly, calling him “a good guy, a nice kid, classy,” while also saying he was “a little bit self-centered, but who isn’t?”
That old Yakupov saga raises a pretty current question for Edmonton: is there someone on today’s roster who fits that same trade-bait profile? A player with talent, plenty of curiosity around his upside, and enough uncertainty that another GM might see him very differently than the Oilers do?
Isaac Howard is the name that keeps coming up.
To be clear, there’s no report tying Howard to a specific deal. Nobody is saying the Oilers view him the same way they once viewed Yakupov. In fact, the sense here is the opposite: Edmonton likes Howard and believes in what he can become.
Still, his name keeps surfacing in trade talk because he’s the kind of player fans and insiders naturally attach to bigger swings. He hasn’t played in the NHL yet, so he fits the mold of a young asset people are willing to include when they imagine a major upgrade.
When Connor Hellebuyck’s name comes up, Howard gets tossed into the hypothetical. Same thing when Kirill Marchenko was loosely linked to Edmonton.
But that kind of speculation doesn’t mean he suddenly becomes the centerpiece of a real trade. Howard may have upside, but he’s not the kind of player who changes the whole conversation by himself.
MacTavish’s Yakupov story is a reminder of how differently teams can value the same player. One side sees a piece worth betting on.
The other sees a hard no. As MacTavish put it, Yakupov looked like the best player on the ice in practice: “If you watch the Oilers practice, which I did on a number of occasions, you would go, ‘There’s your best hockey player.’
Skate, shoot, handle the puck. But when the puck dropped, he couldn’t play with people, and that was what happened to Jesse Puljujärvi as well.”
Whether Edmonton actually shops Howard remains to be seen. But if there’s one player on this roster who fits the description of someone still trying to take his game to another level, it’s him.
In Other News...
Devils Rookie Is Forcing A Tough Call Before The Rangers Game
With the Devils getting ready for a crucial matchup against the Rangers, Sheldon Keefe is already making changes up front in an effort to tighten things before the puck drops. Anthony Mantha is being moved, Arseny Gritsyuk is getting a look on the top line, and the focus is squarely on keeping New Jersey out of trouble against a New York team that can make mistakes expensive.
Amadeus Lombardis recent penalties have put him in an awkward spot, and the coaching staff may decide the safest move is to sit the rookie rather than risk handing the Rangers extra chances on the power play. New Jersey is trying to build on its recent win and keep moving its record in the right direction, but the margin for error still looks thin with the Devils sorting through goaltending and defensive concerns at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Need More From These Forwards Before This Becomes A Problem
The Devils are still sorting out what this new-look roster really is after a 3-3 start, and the early read is pretty clear: Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt are carrying the offense while the rest of the forward group has been slower to join in. New Jersey expected more depth scoring than this, especially with a handful of forwards in positions to make a bigger impact as the season settles in.
Dawson Mercer is the name that stands out most in that discussion, because the Devils were counting on a step forward and have not gotten much of one yet. Amadeus Lombardi and Timo Meier have also been light on production, which is fine for a week in October but starts to matter quickly if the scoring spread stays this narrow. The good news for New Jersey is that the season is young, and the issue is still fixable, but the pressure to get more from that group is only going to grow. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Fans Get An Early Rivalry Test Against The Rangers
The Hudson River Rivalry gets an early-season stage Thursday night at Prudential Center, where the Devils and Rangers are set to meet at 7 p.m. It is the kind of matchup that tends to carry a little more edge than a normal regular-season game, and Devils captain Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Connor Brown and Brett Pesce all weighed in on what makes the rivalry feel different.
For New Jersey, these games are about more than just points in the standings. The familiar tension with New York gives the night extra weight for the players and the building, and it also opens a season-long series that should keep both clubs thinking about the next meeting as much as the one in front of them. Thursday is only the first chance to see how the Devils handle that pressure this time around. [Read more 🡒]