Edmonton Oilers acquire Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick from Anaheim Ducks

In return, the Ducks reportedly receive a 2024 first-round pick and a 2025 conditional fifth-round pick that can improve to a fourth-round pick should the Oilers win the Stanley Cup. The Ducks are retaining 50% of Henrique’s $5.825 million cap hit in the deal, with a third party broker also going to be involved, although the third team is not known yet.

After the trades made earlier in the calendar year for Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan, Henrique, 34, had become the top center on the trade market, ranking 5th on Daily Faceoff Insider Frank Seravalli’s most recent Trade Targets piece. Carrick, 32, was 29th on that list, and 6th among centers on the market.

With this trade, the Oilers bolster what was already a plethora of center options for them on the team. Between Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, their top six center group is already established, but Henrique and Carrick give the team extra options in their bottom six beyond Ryan McLeod, Mattias Janmark, Derek Ryan and Dylan Holloway. It also gives them the option of putting any of those centers on the wing, whether that be with McDavid, Draisaitl or Nugent-Hopkins in the top six or in the bottom six.

Henrique is currently having one of his best seasons of his career, with 18 goals and 24 assists for 42 points in 60 games. Should he play out the rest of the season at that pace, he’ll finish with 57 points, which would easily surpass his previous career-high of 51 that he set in his rookie season with the New Jersey Devils in 2011-12. That said, he scored at this pace in a much bigger role than what he’ll likely get in Edmonton, so his pace may drop a bit going forward.

Carrick has also been producing better than his usual output in his career, although not quite to the level of Henrique, with 8 goals and 3 assists for 11 points in 61 games. That puts him on pace for 14 points, which would be his second most-productive season after his 19-point season in 2021-22.