As the calendar approaches the yearly anticipated trade deadline, the rumours are flying. The Ottawa Senators aren’t expected to make any kind of a big splash at the deadline, but you can’t help but wonder what sort of bargaining chips they bring to the table.

Rumours have been fairly quiet in Ottawa. All season their goal of trying to get rid of Jared Cowen has been evident. Other than that, there was some speculation that the Senators could be attempting to land a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Jonathan Drouin. But, General Manager Bryan Murray has stayed fairly quiet this season, making just one minor-league deal.

Could Ottawa Deal With The Oilers?

On Friday Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman spoke on an Edmonton radio station about the likelihood of a potentially major trade in the near future for the Oilers. And though the focus was on the team likely having their eye on New York Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic, the information regarding the possible availability of Oilers’ forwards Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins could be an interest for Ottawa.

“I do believe we are getting closer to the day that Edmonton makes a move with one of its young forwards. I would say on the ranking of it probably (Jordan) Eberle one, (Ryan) Nugent-Hopkins two for a young player, for a defenceman,” – Elliotte Friedman

A defenceman? Well Ottawa’s got an abundance of those.

So much so that for several games the Senators’ were scratching two defenceman per game when the lineup was healthy. However, there have been several problems with their defense so far this year. The most obvious coming from the area of shots against, where the team leads the league with an average of 33.1 shots against per game. Perhaps a change on the back end could do the team some good.

Related: Senators’ Back End Flexibility Causes More Harm Than Good

Senators’ Not Interested In Dealing Cody Ceci

One area of interest Edmonton may have in Ottawa’s lineup is with a young defenseman like Cody Ceci. Though Ceci hasn’t had the year he expected, a change of scenery could help him gain back his confidence. Being drafted 15th overall by the Senators in 2012, Ceci is expected to emerge into an offensive force on the blue line. But, with a guy like Erik Karlsson in your lineup, your offensive abilities can understandably be overlooked.

The problem there for Ottawa is amidst the rumours of their involvement in trying to trade for Drouin, news surfaced that Murray wasn’t interested in parting with Ceci.

Related: Senators Not Willing To Trade Cody Ceci For Jonathan Drouin

Now, that potential deal had a lot more involved than just departing with their young local defenseman. Tampa was looking for at least a prospect to go along with it. Nevertheless, you wonder if Murray would budge for a player like Jordan Eberle or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins when his long-time goal of acquiring a top-six forward still lingers.

With the talk that this may be Murray’s last year as Ottawa’s GM, illustrating a deal like this would make for quite the exit.