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This in from several sources, the Edmonton Oilers offering a try-out contract to Brandon Davidson, which he has rejected for now at least.

From CHED’s Reid Wilkins: “Oilers offered Brandon Davidson a PTO, but he’s looking for a contract. He’s close to getting that elsewhere. Could happen within a week.”

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And from the Journal’s Jim Matheson: “Brandon Davidson has PTO offer from Oilers amongst many other team’s. He has few contract offers too but two-way deals.”

My take

After the injury to Andrej Sekera, the Oilers had an opening to offer a one-year, one-way deal to a veteran depth d-man but evidently chose Jakub Jerabek over Brandon Davidson. As well as Davidson has played for the Oilers, Edmonton made the right bet favouring the puck mover in Jerabek over the defensive d-man in Davidson. And I say this knowing Davidson has played well for the Oilers two years in a row. I’ve long been a huge fan of Davidson’s smart and rugged game, and it’s well that the Oilers are interested in him. He’s just a cut below d-men like Matt Benning and even Kris Russell in terms of his effectiveness. As you can see, he doesn’t create much on the attack, but he gives up little in his own end, only rarely making major mistakes that lead to Grade A scoring chances against. His numbers in these scoring chances totals are boosted by the fact he has played most against weaker competition. It’s one thing to defend against fourth line grinders and another to defend against top competition, as Davidson mainly did in 2016-17. But Davidson faced more top comp this past year and still did well. I’m less certain that going with Kevin Gravel over Davidson on a contract was a good idea, as I don’t know Gravel’s game. But he sounds like more of a puck-mover than Davidson as well. And we also don’t know if Davidson was willing to sign here when Gravel did. He may have been holding out then for a better offer. That’s an unknown in assessing the Gravel signing. Davidson has netted the Oilers players and picks in trades two years running, David Desharnais in 2016-17 and a third-round pick last year, so he’s been of great value to the Oilers, earning his keep in trade and on the ice. Some team will be lucky to get him.

Cult of Hockey prospect series

Goal: #7 Stuart Skinner#13 Olivier Rodrigue | #18 Hayden Hawkey | #23 Dylan Wells | Depth G

Defence: #10 Dmitri Samorukov | #12 Filip Berglund | #15 William Lagesson | #16 Joel Persson | #19 Phil Kemp | #20 Keegan Lowe | #22 John Marino | #25: Ryan Mantha | Depth D

Wing: #8 Tyler Benson#11 Ostap Safin | #14 Graham McPhee | #24 Jospeh Gambardella | Depth W

Centre: #9 Cooper Marody | #17 Cameron Hebig | #21 Aapeli Rasanen | Depth C