The Oilers outplayed Chicago in that series. They would've made it further than 5 games against Vegas. In fact, they wouldn't even have played Vegas. They would've played St. Louis, who is looking much weaker

touche

The cap is flat, more teams then less are in a cap crunch and a lot of teams that seem to have some cap space really don't have much after they pay some of their RFAs even if they're not big name RFA'S every million or so adds up so there isn't a lot of teams with cap space to take on these players.

Pretty much every team has players like these four you have here going to Ottawa so they're not in demand even if they're still somewhat useful, also many teams have similar type guys who they'd like to move to create cap space to make other additions so if everyone is trying to move similar type players/money who's taking them?

The teams with cap space tend to be rebuilding so while they may have space they also don't necessarily want some veteran blocking ice time from a young player they're trying to develop.

I think that cap dump trades are increasingly deemed as too costly so GM's are deciding it's just not worth it to lose valuable picks, prospects or young players for that cap space so they just keep the player and try to make him work or seek another solution but that other solution is rarely there, long buyouts are painful if you're trying to compete like Edmonton which is why I don't think buying out Neal is a good idea, almost $2M of dead cap for 6 years just isn't worth it.

It'd be pretty painful for the Oilers to dump Neal, Russell or Koskinen, just can't see any team having interest in them without being compensated well for taking them, maybe Russell if they're lucky but he has some trade protection which could complicate things, might be able to add Chiasson in a deal but that'd likely be a money in money out deal.

I really think all these guys will be Oilers next season.

If you aren't taking back another GMs mistake, they aren't taking yours, at least not without being compensated and the cost to rid yourselves of those 3 contracts (Chiasson aside) would be too high. You're going to need to ride some of those contracts out. McDavid is growing impatient but there's much you can do. Kassian's new contract isn't going to help either. I genuinely feel bad for Oiler fans, and I'm saying that as an Ottawa fan!