Oilers in Cap Hell

Why are you paying seven figures to 4th line players and healthy scratches? The way I see it is that you can give all those spots to prospects on ELCs or role players on league minimum contracts, and save nearly $3.5M of cap space just on those 4 spots.

Couple that with the cap that's expected to increase significantly this summer and the Oil has nearly $7M in cap space to make some adjustments. That's not a huge amount to work with, but that's certainly not "donezo" or "scraping up against the cap".

They actually are up against it pretty bad for next season. They have four RFA's in Puljujarvvi,Rattie, Khaira and Reider which would eat up about $4.5 per season just on qualifying offers. They have three UFA's in Chiasson and both their goalies. All told they have about $15.5 million in cap space to sign all those pieces and two good goalies are gonna take about $7-8 million at least. They're not likely to bring back Reider or Rattie so that's about $2.75 million to spend elsewhere, they're likely to sign Khaira and Puljujarvvi but I have no clue how much they'll cost, likely not a ton but it's still gonna be more then they're making now. Chiasson is on pace to earn himself a pretty decent raise probably in the $2-3 million range if he stays with the Oilers so thats basically the Reider/Rattie not signing savings. Unless they can move out some of the expensive unproductive pieces like Lucic,Spooner and Russel or a bunch of the smaller dead weight pieces that really add up Iike Manning, Benning and Kassian they're not gonna have much cap space to sign any free agents this summer that will actually make any significant impact. They may not be exactly "scraping up against the cap" but in reality it's pretty close and unless they make a bold trade or two or Yamomoto, Puljujarvvi and Bouchard all take massive steps forward next season I think next seasons Oilers will look a lot like this seasons Oilers.

I know he's not on here but what's the ask for Nurse?
A combo of young cheap players, good long decent contracts, picks are less needed as they need to field a squad.
Just wondering

To be honest I don't know. I'm a leafs fan, and from an outsider perspective, that is exactly the type of player you do not want to trade. I actually think the best move might be to sit and wait. Let years on Lucic, Sekera, Koskinen, Larsson, etc pass. As the years start to tick off their contracts, they become more easily traceable, or you can just let them expire and do not replace them. When this team is good, McDavid will still be the 1C, Klefbom and Nurse are studs on the backend. The rest can shift. Draft and develop without self-sabotaging by trading and signing FA's. Just hold tight for two three years, then make a move. And certainly do not trade Nurse, because with whatever picks and prospects you get, you will try to use them to hopefully to develop another Darnell Nurse,

Ok, so looking at the Oilers current cap situation, they have 17 players locked up to contracts past this season. Let's assume they bury Spooner in the AHL, Sekera goes the way of Chris Pronger (permanent LTIR) and that Manning and Benning end up as the 3rd pair with limited protected minutes. So that's 15 players with a cap hit of $72M (not countin LTIR space for Sekera). That gives them about $11M to sign 5 forwards, 1 defensemen, and a backup goaltender.

Let's start with the forwards:

Rieder sucks, don't qualify him and let him become a UFA.

Puljujärvi, Rattie, and Khaira haven't done anything to warrant significant raises. They might negotiate for longer term in exchange for one-way contracts, but none of them are getting significant raises over their qualifying offers. Certainly none of them deserve seven-figure contracts. Between the three of them, you're looking at about $2.5M. You have Benson and Marody that should both be looking for a spot out of training camp. Let's assume Marody makes it and Benson needs another year in the AHL. You've now added just shy of $3.5M for 4 forward spots. Give Chiasson the higher end of your range and extend him for $3M AAV. That's $6.5M for forwards with one open spot remaining.

The top six defensemen spots are set for next year assuming everyone is healthy. At least one of Bear or Jones should be ready to go by next season, so that's another $925k and rounds out the defense.

Koskinen just signed an extension today for $4.5M, meaning he's expected to take the brunt of the starts next season. You certainly don't need to pay your backup more than $1M. Trade for someone like Campbell who currently leads the league in SV% and GAA and is locked up for another season at $650K. He'll cost a B prospect or a 2nd/3rd round pick.

So now you're at a cap hit of just shy of $79M with all spots filled except for one forward slot (probably LW). That give you $4M to sign or trade for someone to take a middle-six winger spot. If you add in LTIR relief for Sekera, then you have $9M to work with. I wouldn't say they're in an ideal cap position, but they're not in "cap hell" either.