A flat salary cap won’t do the Oilers any favors … A look at who could be back to who could be gone
Mark Spector of Sportsnet: (mailbag) Edmonton Oilers defenseman Kris Russell carries a $4 million salary cap hit, which is too much for a third-pairing defenseman.
Ideally, the Oilers would move out some of their older, more expensive players.
Defenseman Matt Benning is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. His current salary of $1.9 million is a decent number for him. It doesn’t make sense to not bring Benning back, but one of Benning or Russell will likely be traded to make room for Caleb Jones or Evan Bouchard.
Unless teams are given the option of a compliance buyout, can’t see the Oilers buying out anyone – James Neal or Kris Russell. Benoit Pouliot is on the books for another year at $1.33 million, and Andrej Sekera at $1.5 million for another two years. The Oilers are also carrying Milan Lucic‘s $750,000 for another three seasons.
Neal may be overpaid, but in 55 games this season he did score 19 goals. Idea of buying him out may come after next season or the season after when he only has a year left on his deal.
The Oilers may have too many defenseman and have a need for a top-six winger, but it’s doubtful that they could pull a big surprise move this offseason. They could look to package Jesse Puljujarvi, a draft and Jones, but what would that get? To go big, would need to include someone like Darnell Nurse, Adam Larsson, or Oscar Klefbom, and there are reasons to not do that.
Mark Spector of Sportsnet: Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland said that they are planning for next season going off a flat of cap of $81.5 million.
“We were told at the managers’ meetings in early March that the (salary cap) projections for the 2020-21 cap would be from $84 to $88 million. Now, we’re heading into the unknown,” said Holland. “For planning purposes, I’m just going to work off of this year’s number of $81.5 million. Nobody knows what the cap will end up being.”
The Oilers will have just under $10 million coming off the books. They could look to re-sign goaltender Mike Smith, and possibly Tyler Ennis, Riley Sheahan and Patrick Russell. Each of the forwards would likely be one-year deals at under $1.1 million.
A compliance buyout of James Neal could save them $5.75 million.
RFA forward Andreas Athanasiou is arbitration-eligible and would need a $3 million qualifying offer. He could get $4 million in arbitration.
RFA defenseman Matt Benning will likely be looking for more than his current $1.9 million.
Trading defenseman Kris Russell and his $4 million for another year would help clear some space.
The Oilers may consider bringing Mike Green back if they could get him signed around $1.5 million.
In net, the Oilers don’t have anyone ready to fill their backup position, so re-signing Mike Smith could be an option if it’s not more than $2 million.