The Spawn is back
Joined: Jun. 2016
Posts: 2,277
Likes: 1,068
As an Oilers fan I have very little interest in the Lee contract even at 6 mil. Feel he could fall off a cliff over 30 and we'd be left with two Neal type contracts, yikes. The Hickey dead weight bury contract only detracts even more, and Koivula doesn't move the needle enough.
If Klef is known healthy by the expansion draft, I think he'll be kept and protected unless Jones plays exceptionally well this season. If Jones and Nurse (and Broberg's development) look very solid, then perhaps a Klef trade makes sense to a team without 3 solid top 4 dmen to protect. The type of trade I'd hope for with Klef is for a solid top line RW on a cap hit not too different (Ehlers comes to mind, if the Jets D suffers this season and he doesn't take off like a complete rocket).
If Klef is still injured and recovery is not fast, I think Oil will expose him to Seattle to see if they want to take the risk of taking his injuries on, at no cap cost to the Oil to cut losses. In this flat cap, only trade I'd want for a still injured Klef is for picks. Otherwise expansion loss with a solid top 4 in Edmonton already would be fine, opening up space for another winger from McDavid or another goalie to tandem with Koskinen.