The Edmonton Oilers are just one point out of the playoffs with 13 games to play.
If that wasn’t enough of an indicator they weren’t going to unload players at Wednesday’s trade deadline, captain Shawn Horcoff has all but made it official.
“We’ve pretty much established that we’re not going to be sellers,” Horcoff told the Edmonton Journal on Tuesday. “It would even be nice to add for once. But even if we don’t do anything, we’re comfortable with what we have in here.
“We’re really starting to find our stride as a team.”
The Oilers have won four straight and seven of 11, with a number of victories coming against teams they’re chasing for the final playoff spot.
Recent victories over Nashville, St. Louis and Columbus have gone a long way in getting Edmonton back into the mix -- the Oilers were sitting 14th in the Western Conference on Mar. 8.
As such, the club could be deadline buyers for the first time in a long time.
Last year, the team made a “hockey trade” -- flipping defenseman Tom Gilbert to Minnesota for Nick Schultz -- and the year prior, they dealt Dustin Penner for a prospect (Colten Teubert) and a first- and third-round pick.
This year, the Oilers have already taken Ladislav Smid, a potential deadline target, off the market by signing him to a four-year, $14 million deal -- a move Smid saw as a positive sign.
“I hope they are going to keep this team together. We are extremely close to the playoffs,” Smid told The Journal. “I think we have something special going on here — and we haven’t been in this situation for several years now.”