Team: 2021-22 Edmonton Oilers

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 20, 2021

Published: Jul. 20, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This offseason is huge for the Oilers and the rest of the Draisaitl and McDavid contracts. Due to Holland tripping, falling and thinking it’s 2015 the oilers now have to deal with the Keith contract. Due to being on a better team and ideally on your third pair he’s bound to have somewhat of a bounce back season. Because of his 5.5 mill cap the oilers have to create cap space and that’s what we start with:

Buy out James Neal. Bury Kyle Turris.

Teams are interested in Zack Kassian, providing the reason that the oilers protected him from the Kraken. Rangers have been linked to him so that’s who I decided to trade him to, but really it could be a number of teams.

Regular house keeping things: Sign Yamamoto and Larsson. Starting with Yamo, bit of a down year so a bridge contract is in order, you try and get him at 1.5M over 3 years to prove himself. Now Larsson is interesting as apparently he wants to test the market but you hope you can lock your only real defensive defensemen at 4.5 over 4 years. Obviously he could walk in FA so you would circle back to Barrie and see if he’ll take a bit of a discount at 4.5 over 4/5 years to fill in that hole on the RHD side of the ice.

Now the Expansion draft, I see the Kraken taking one of four players: Kahun (RFA), Khaira (RFA), Benson, Stalock. I think the Kraken take a chance on Kahun as he’s got the best value/most upside.

Young Players that permanently step into the lineup next season providing cap savings and youthful jump in the lineup. The oilers finally have depth coming up through their system. The three big ones are McLeod, Benson, and Bouchard. I expect a big step from all three. Bouchard may even be in the Calder conversation.

Now signings: I’m looking at Hyman, Tatar and Schwartz at forward. At D we already talked about Signing Larsson/Barrie but another player I’m looking at is Jake McCabe to slot into the 2nd Pair. I think he’ll fly under the radar and be an underated value signing as a hard hitting defensive defensemen that can chip in some offense here and there. Now for Hyman the oilers have been linked to him for a while now however I wouldn’t want to pay more than 5M over 5 years. I justify less term with an attraction to play with McDavid and Draisaitl and play with a young team that is right there. Now for Tatar and Schwartz you sign one and play them on your third line that can shuffle up and down the lineup depending on performance/injuries.
Now you also make some depth forward and defensive signings. I opted for Koekoek, Ennis, Nash.
Now for trades. The oilers need a goaltender and one they have been linked to is Jake Allen. I opted to trade a D and a goalie prospect plus a pick. I think it’s close but I could definitely add more if habs fans have a cow over the trade. Now your running a tandem of Allen and Koskinen. Now Koskinen is overpaid but you have to remember that he played 10 straight games in 18 games and it torpedoed his season. He had a .917 sv% the previous year. His poor play is a result of Tippet poorly managing him and the NHL’s stupid waiver rules this past season.

Hollands checklist:
Forward depth: Hyman, Schwartz, Benson, McLeod, Nash, Ennis.
Defensive depth: Larsson, McCabe, Bouchard, Koekoek.
Goaltending: Allen.

Please leave your thoughts below. I think this is fairly realistic. The first time the oilers have offensive, defensive depth in years. The mix of young players and veterans is fantastic. I would love to have this team on opening night!

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