Team: 2021-22 Edmonton Oilers

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 4, 2021

Published: Jun. 4, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The Oilers are heading into an off-season of change. Holland will for the first time since getting to EMD have some Cap space to work with as some of the Chiarelli deals expire.

First thing I have Seattle taking Bear in the expansion Draft, In this situation EMD will protect 7 FWDs and 3 D (Nurse, Barrie, Larsson), Bear is the best available player to them at the best cap hit so he is gone.

The Biggest issues on the roster remain James Neal's huge deal (Until 2023), Koskinen's and Kassian's money. The only was to deal with this is to wait for the deals to expire because it is unlikely that the league institutes compliance buyouts as they would have done that last summer already when Covid first hit and flattened the Cap. In this scenario I'm going to say that Neal and Turris take a trip to Robidas' island (What leaf fans called it when Lamoriello sent guys who were older, with deteriorating play and big money to LTIR, including Robidas and Lupul)

I also believe some of the Oilers biggest additions this summer will be from within as I expect, Dylan Holloway and Raphael Lavoie to make next years team in top 9F Roles and Bouchard and Broberg to each factor into the top 6D. I also think RNH will be back at around the same cap (5.5-6M) for 4-5 years and Larsson for 3.5-4M for 3-4 Years.

The Oilers will address their biggest need, between the pipes, with one of the best FA goalies this year because they lack a blue chip prospect in the system at this position. I believe they will sign either Freddie Andersen (as the Leafs will go forward with Campbell believing they can better spend Andersen's money elsewhere) or Petr Mrazek (as the Canes will move forward with the younger, higher celling, Nedeljkovic). Whichever goalie they choose the deal will be around 4-5M for 3-5 years.

The Biggest unknown for the Oilers offseason is the Fate of Oscar Klefbom, at this time there are questions to if he will ever play in the NHL again, for this reason I have decided to keep him on IR and consider him functionally retired so I will use his money to sign a second paring left D man for the Oilers (Ryan Murray - the very good when healthy D-man that they should have taken over Yakupov many years ago when they were the top 2 prospects). This also frees the Oilers up to give money to Barrie to keep him around (signing a deal similar to the one Tory Krug got last summer).

In this situation the oilers will use the rest of their cap to go after the Cap Strapped TBL bottom 6 players like Coleman and Goodrow. Granted to have the cap space to do so Neal will HAVE to be on Robidas island or bought out.

Overall I know that Oilers fans want to be way more aggressive than what I am suggesting here, adding from within by promoting high end prospects. but doing this will set the oilers up with ample cap room (about 4.4M) for the up coming season becoming 12 million next summer when the sekera buyout and Koskinen and lucic contracts come off the books and 18 Million the year after when Neal's money is paid. This 18mil can then be used to pay the Bouchard, Broberg, Holloway, Lavoie and Mcleod when their ELCs expire.

Another Thing is I expect the Oilers to be a playoff team during these 2 years they wait to fix their cap problems, safely making the playoffs every year and everyone knows once you make it to the dance there is always a chance to make the final (look at Dallas last year). So I do not think this is suggesting a rebuild that will waste McDavid's Prime. It is quite the opposite I think this is the Oilers best strategy for a prolonged McDavid Dynasty especially in 2 years when they have a ton of cap to chase the big fish.

*Note* I use the Taxi Squad to denote players who are the ones most likely to fill in for injured players