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Bob McKenzie opened his week of radio hits with an appearance on Montreal’s TSN 690, and, as you might imagine, one Jacob Trouba came up as a discussion point.

“There’s lots of interest in him, but there’s maybe not all that many teams that are positioned well to get him,” said McKenzie. “Right now the Winnipeg Jets – if they trade Jacob Trouba, and it is an if because they put out their statement that was kind of a counter to his, basically saying, ‘Hey, we’ll do whatever’s in the best interest of our hockey team.’ But they also know long term that it’s not the best fit and it’s not the best circumstance.

“But right now, the Jets appear to be looking for a high-impact, one-for-one deal. That is ‘Okay, we’re going to trade a guy coming out of entry level who is a right-shot defenseman – which is really valuable in the National Hockey League – and even though we didn’t play him in a Top 4 role because we had Byfuglien and Myers ahead of him on the depth chart, we’re going to treat him as if he’s a Top 4 guy. Therefore, our asking price is we want a Top 4 or top-pairing left-shot defenseman to fill the hole that we would be creating by trading Trouba.’ Because the Jets planned on playing Trouba on the left side with either Byfuglien or Myers this year.

McKenzie on Trouba, Ristolainen and Lindholm contract situations

“Well, there’s not that many left-shot, elite defensemen coming out of entry level of like ages and talents. I mean, Rasmus Ristolainen in Buffalo would be one. And I absolutely believe Buffalo would have interest in Jacob Trouba. But not if it means giving up Ristolainen. I do not believe that Buffalo would make that one-for-one trade.

“Anaheim’s got Hampus Lindholm in a situation where he’s a restricted free agent who doesn’t have a contract yet, so even though Sweden is knocked out, he won’t be in camp this week. Similar situation to Trouba. I don’t believe that Anaheim is prepared to trade Hampus Lindholm to Winnipeg in a one-for-one for Trouba.

“So there are teams out there – New York Rangers, Arizona, some others – that would be really interested in Jacob Trouba; but they don’t have the asset that, at this point in time, Winnipeg is demanding in exchange.

“So it’ll be interesting to see how this thing proceeds here over the next little while.”

A short time later, while on Edmonton’s TSN 1260, McKenzie was asked if the Oilers had a piece or two that could get this Trouba trade done.

“I guess they might,” said McKenzie. “As soon as the Trouba news came down, I saw the stuff on Twitter. ‘Oh boy, he’s going to Edmonton. The Oilers will be all over this.’

“I’m not saying the Oilers aren’t interested in Jacob Trouba, but I wouldn’t necessarily categorize them as a team that would be beating down the door to try to make this deal happen. And I don’t know if Winnipeg would perceive Darnell Nurse or Oscar Klefbom as fair value coming back the other way. There’s no question right now the plan is to go with Klefbom and Larsson on the top pair and let Nurse continue to develop more as a third-pair guy.

“So I think the Oilers will probably take this one a day at a time and see where it goes. The price today for Trouba might not be the price in two or three or four weeks, or as we get closer to the soft deadline of October 12 or the hard deadline of December 1st.

Sources: TSN 690, TSN 1260/ Transcript: Nichols

McKenzie: Jets may seek ‘high-impact’ one-for-one Trouba trade