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The third round pick is in 2019, just like the one obtained from the Islanders in the Brandon Davidson trade on Saturday. Nice to have extra picks in the bank for next year, but this one will see the Oilers down either a fourth- or fifth-rounder, previously ceded in the Al Montoya trade. Otherwsie they will have just their own picks, having acquired no 2018 selections at the trade deadline despite moving out three players.

Maroon was acquired at the very last moment of the 2016 trade deadline when Peter Chiarelli took advantage of the situation in Anaheim — who had acquired several forwards earlier in the process — to obtain the big winger for the low-low price of a fourth-round draft pick and a contract from the 50-man list (Martin Gernat) going the other way. He even managed to get the Ducks to retain a quarter of Maroon’s $2 MM cap hit on a pact that still had two-plus years to run at that point.

Maroon came in and helped immediately, posting 8 goals and 6 assists in 16 games down the stretch, then following up with a 27-goal campaign as the Oilers surged to the playoffs in 2016-17. Overall, in 154 games with the Oilers he posted boxcars of 49-37-86, +24 with 189 PiM. On a per-82 basis that prorates to 26-20-46, +13, 101 PiM. Add in 184 hits per 82, and that fits the profile of a productive power forward. In the process the “Big Rig” became a highly popular player in Good Old Ourtown.

Photo by Codie McLachlan / Getty Images

He’s an experienced player with exactly 400 NHL regular season and playoff games who will turn 30 during the first round of the playoffs. While his frequent partnership with Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl no doubt inflated his offensive numbers, in the process Maroon proved more than capable of playing with high-end skill, something he also did at times in Anaheim with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. A good complementary player is exactly what GM’s of contenders are looking to add at this time of year, and in Maroon the Devils have added a player who can fit in at 5v5 on any line from the first through the fourth, though with New Jersey’s top offenswive driver also being a left winger — Taylor Hall, remember him? — the first line role is highly unlikely.