Team: 2020-21 Edmonton Oilers

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 8, 2020

Published: Aug. 8, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Tried to do this with as little trades as possible. If you buyout Neal and trade Russell and Chiasson, its doable. Whatever you guys think is a fair deal for them you can debate it in the comments, I just went with a random b/c tier prospect and a pick. New Jersey is east coast and looks like they have roster spots open. However trade could be anywhere, was just making room. If it were my team, Id trade Kassian over Chiasson but the former just signed a new deal and the latter in on an expiring deal...

1st line would be: Lafreniere - McDavid - Dadonov
McDavid gets RNH lite and a player that can actually score goals, amazing. Dadonov takes only a slight pay increase to go play with McDavid. I can see him going here, as EDM is a similar team as FLA, only we have 2 of the top 5 players in the league.

Second line would be: AA - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Draisaitl and Yamamoto together is a must, and AA needs to be a top6 player or we trade him. I wanted to trade him tbh, but adding an extra trade and speculating on who would replace him was something I didn't want to do. I also think Ennis on the line makes it too undersized. AA also only gets a slight pay increase.

3rd line would be: Ennis - RNH - Kassian
I like this line. Nuge gets to be a center with an actual scoring winger in Ennis. Kassian makes up for the fact that Ennis is so small, and can create space for them to work in. Ideally Kassian works best as a 3rd liner as well. Again I can see Chiasson also fulfilling the role here (would also help on the PP) as well.

4th line would be: Khaira - Sheahan - Archibald
Ah the PK line. They arent gonna score many goals, but we need to keep the players that made up the league's second best penalty kill. I think Sheahan and Archibald work great together, and Khaira rounds out the line well.

Defense is basically the same, only Caleb Jones slots in with Benning. There will be changes next year in the d-core with the draft, but its extremely hard to change it this year. Bear takes a short term deal for corona reasons, Benning gets the smallest increase possible, Green (/whoever you want as the 7th d, just took the easy option here) makes league minimum basically.

Goalies are Koskinen and Khudobin
We are stuck with Koskinen whether we like it or not, and the best goalie left in our pay range is Khudobin. Another option the Oilers could take is to Trade AA for Korpisalo, and pick up a Galchenyuk or a Namestnikov or a Haula in Free Agency. Thats the only other goaltender that i can see as fitting the bill while being in our price range, however id much rather have this be a fall back option if we cant get Khudobin.