And how does Vegas get that cap space?

So far this year Kassian has earned his money and Puljujarvi is looking like a 3.5 million dollar player when you look at his whole season.

Jesse is on a cold streak currently im sure he will break out of it. While yes kassian has earned this year Im not 100 percent sure he will the next and his role takes up space for prospects to develop

Bouchard wont be 8.75 million he will get like 5.5 x 6 or something like that.

Move on from dadanov, gives you 7 mil in cap space to use barrie for special teams and sign hauge

I mean with how he is playing the dude looks great and once he gets more use to the feel of the league and his rookie mistakes go away he should be a force (Fox,Makar level) also the d-market is absolutely insane as of currently so if nurse gets 9 mil then he should get 8

4th line is wide open. Outside of Raphael Lavoie there is nobody who is a right shot who plays right side. Mostly LW and center prospects in the system.

Kass has been playing great this year, while not fighting as much , he brings so much energy to every line that hes on. Still don't understand why everyone wants him gone when hes playing better than pulju

Nurse took 4 years of bridge deals 3,2 x 2 and 5.6 x 2. When you start paying players right off of their ELC it brings down the average of their salary.

Makar/Fox level is quite a stretch. Don't get me wrong, I like Bouchard but Norris contender is likely above his ceiling, he doesn't control the game like those guys do. That said, even for Nurse to become a true #1 he went through 2 bridge contracts before you really knew he was worth that kind of money. Bouchard likely has a 2-3 year bridge before he even has a chance at a contract like that.

Yes but with d-man you don't wanna sign them to bridge deals then have to sign them long term after the fact. If you sign bouchard to a bridge then sign him to a 6-8 year when he is 26 27 like we did with nurse its gonna come back to bite us. Right now a bunch of d-man who signed long term contracts in their prime then fell off 2 years later with these big deals still attached look terrible (Karlsson,Burns,Doughty,Evantully Josi) we did the same exact thing with nurse and when he hits 32 or whatever it is going to kill us. If we sign bouchard long term now we keep him before he falls off that cliff and either sign him to a 2-3 year deal or let someone else pay him 9 mill till he's 37

And why trade Barrie within our division at retained salary? With how important cap is to the Oilers, they'd be better off taking a lesser return than to retain salary.

I will admit fox makar was a strech but I think I perfect comparison talent and game style-wise is john carlson they both play so similar its insane and carlson has stayed a steady top 10 dman for years while not quite being franchise which is Bouchard's ceiling.
And as for the nurse thing


Yes but with d-man you don't wanna sign them to bridge deals then have to sign them long term after the fact. If you sign bouchard to a bridge then sign him to a 6-8 year when he is 26 27 like we did with nurse its gonna come back to bite us. Right now a bunch of d-man who signed long term contracts in their prime then fell off 2 years later with these big deals still attached look terrible (Karlsson,Burns,Doughty,Evantully Josi) we did the same exact thing with nurse and when he hits 32 or whatever it is going to kill us. If we sign bouchard long term now we keep him before he falls off that cliff and either sign him to a 2-3 year deal or let someone else pay him 9 mill till he's 37

Fair point let me fix that I just don't know what other market is going to have a need for him on special teams

People have put out the idea of trading Barrie to Arizona so chychrun has somebody to play with. Edmonton would get like maybe a second or third pick but his cap would be totally gone.

Thank you I was not aware of the arizona market as an option for barrie I will fix the trades

I sure hope they dont bridge him.

I was thinking a Montreal, NJD once Subban's contract is up, Dallas is in conference but no guarantee they hold onto Klingberg.

if they do and then sign him long term its going to kill them in the long term

The upside to bridging is it delays the higher cap hit when you're trying to tinker year to year in the contending window. The good new is his ELC is up at the same time Keith comes off the books.

My concern is getting Bouchard for another 6 years to entice mcdavid and Draisaitl to resign and not have a huge pay increase in 4 years so that can be done.

Such a delicate game to play. Do you give the big number now to have him locked in long term or go for short term savings by keeping his bridge low in order to maximize what you can fit in for short term contracts while McD and Drai are at their absolute peaks?