from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

Edmonton Oilers’ GM Craig MacTavish was on his cell-phone while his team was skating Thursday morning and while it could have been his lovely wife telling her hubby to stop for a loaf of bread on the way home, it may have been another GM talking about defencemen. Certainly, the Oilers could use an NHL veteran back there....

Here’s who’s available, by most accounts:

Detroit’s Kyle Quincey, Carolina’s Tim Gleason, Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov and Phoenix’s David Rundblad.

*The Wings are likely offering Quincey, 28, around the league because he hasn’t played particularly well and they like Danny DeKeyser better and they badly need to clear out some money with major cap issues. Quincey, who has had two tours of duty with the Wings, has a $3.3775 million cap hit with his contract over July 1. He’s a C plus defenceman. Big enough but not an offensive guy or a true shutdown type. Detroit really doesn’t want to take a contract back in a deal for him but the Oilers are at 49 contracts (one under the max)

*Gleason,30, may be expendable with the Hurricanes because the 6’4″, 225-pound Brett Bellemore has stepped in to take XX night. He’s five years younger, plus Gleason has a $4 million cap hit for this year and two more, which makes his trade dicey. He’s a shutdown second-pairing guy. Carolina needs more offence.

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