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NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reveals why Brett Kulak had to be included in the trade to Pittsburgh
Photo credit: Edit from Daily Faceoff
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Oilers didn't want to trade Brett Kulak, but the team was forced to send him to Pittsburgh to make the money work.
On Friday morning, the Edmonton Oilers traded defenseman Brett Kulak as part of a trade package for goaltender Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
This trade brought a mixed reaction to the Oilers organization, as Kulak had been a consistent face on the Edmonton blueline for some years.
What this trade was more of a result of
This trade was more a result of cap space than performance, despite the inconsistency of goaltender Stuart Skinner.
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reports that Edmonton did not want to trade Kulak, but the team was pushed to include him in order to make the salary work.
Re Skinner/Jarry/Kulak trade: "I don't think they wanted to trade [Kulak], but they had to do it to make the money work."
- Elliotte Friedman
- Elliotte Friedman
This was echoed by General Manager Stan Bowman after the trade was consummated, saying that trading Kulak's contract was what allowed the trade to happen.
"Yeah, Brett Kulak was a great Oiler and was excellent in the playoffs last year, there's no doubt about that. With where he was and his contract, as far as the last year of his deal, we were able to acquire Stastney, who is six years younger, very similar style of player. The thing we liked about Stastney is his excellent mobility, he's a great skater, a lot of quickness and has been effective on the penalty kill.
[Stastney] has got some offence to his game as well. We think he hasn't reached his true potential yet, like he's 25 years old, so we've been able to reshape our defence a bit here in the last year. We now have three guys who are 25 and [Evan] Bouchard is 26. So we've got four younger defencemen who are all in their prime years.
I think Stastney is not someone probably a lot of people are too familiar with, but I do think he plays a very similar style to Kulak, and that was important to us as part of this deal."
- Stan Bowman
[Stastney] has got some offence to his game as well. We think he hasn't reached his true potential yet, like he's 25 years old, so we've been able to reshape our defence a bit here in the last year. We now have three guys who are 25 and [Evan] Bouchard is 26. So we've got four younger defencemen who are all in their prime years.
I think Stastney is not someone probably a lot of people are too familiar with, but I do think he plays a very similar style to Kulak, and that was important to us as part of this deal."
- Stan Bowman
Kulak was traded to the Oilers before the trade deadline of the 2022 season and became an instantly stabilizing presence on the team's defense, which had been struggling to make progress through the playoffs.
He accumulated eight points in the last 18 games of the regular season that year and five assists in the postseason games. Following Mattias Ekholm's acquisition in 2022-2023, Kulak found himself playing a limited role, scoring 20 points in 82 games.
During the 2023-24 season, Kulak teamed with Vincent Desharnais and continued to be a consistent postseason performer as Edmonton went to the Stanley Cup Final.
Why Brett Kulak contract negotiations became difficult this year
During the 2024-25 campaign, playing with Ty Emberson, he posted a career-high 25 points. His point production declined this year, making contract negotiations more difficult.
Edmonton brought in Spencer Stastney as a substitute for Kulak. He is younger with a comparable skill set but at a lower salary.
Kulak departs after establishing consistent postseason play with minimal absences, adapting to whatever the lineups changed to on a given night.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 14 | 273 ANSWERS NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reveals why Brett Kulak had to be included in the trade to Pittsburgh Will Brett Kulak have more success in Pittsburgh than he had in Edmonton? | ||
| Yes | 137 | 50.2 % |
| No | 63 | 23.1 % |
| Same amount of success | 73 | 26.7 % |
| List of polls | ||