Hab Oilers Nurse Lucic and more - Oil point of view

Team: 2019-20 Edmonton Oilers

Initial Creation Date: Feb. 6, 2019

Published: Feb. 6, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Opposite point of view from earlier post. I'm not nearly as familiar with details of Oilers roster but have seen enough to know they are in a whole pile of trouble - very top heavy roster right now.

With Lucic gone they are automatically faster, and have a bit of cap flexibility to fix a few problems. But clearly there is a price to pay for Montreal to help fix the Lucic issue.

Since at least 4 of the prospects shown would actually be in the minors to get down to the 23 man roster, there's actually about $7M unused cap space here to find a UFA forward at reasonable cost. But preferably just don't spend to the cap until it actually matters 2-3 years down the road when key prospects have developed and are contributing.

No question this is a hard team to re-balance, that's why so many AGMs here are trying to do it.

Assume Oilers miss playoffs this year, pick at #7 and take Matthew Boldy US-NTDP winger to start rebuilding forward prospects.

Guys like Boldy, Yamo, Bouchard, Benson, Jones and Mcleod spend another year in AHL or NCAA before a real shot at the NHL roster. The team struggles for 2019-20 season, get another top 10 pick, then starts to move up the ranks in 2020 as young prospects start to contribute. The roster shown is more of a future depth chart at different positions. Some of the 4th line roster spots and 7-8D would actually be occupied with other more experienced guys from AHL level at less than $800K each next season who are not really part of the long term plan. Too lazy to re-sign all the minor RFA's in that category and make the lineup "real" for next year. More interested who is in those key spots 2 years from now.

Once Russell and Sekara expire in a few years, there will be need for experience on left D. But there will also be some cap space to address it.

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