Simpleton
Joined: Jun. 2017
Posts: 1,365
Likes: 502
The Oilers have signed their top-6 forward, minute munching 2LD, and starting goaltender, a nice piece of work so far. Assuming Skinner is the de facto back-up behind Campbell, and both Mike Smith and Oscar Klefbom are placed on LTIR, Ken Holland has roughly $7.6M left to spend and he needs to sign 7 more players, including at least 2 of his RFAs in need of pay increases. Its not realistic for a GM to spend his way into a situation that leaves absolutely no wiggle room under the salary cap. The Oilers need to have a gap of at least $1M with which to spend, preferably more given that they will be reliant on LTIR in order to be compliant next season. At this point, Holland needs to move at least one of his existing contracts, likely Foegele or Barrie, or both. Holloway can probably provide everything Foegele did last year, and perhaps even more. Moving Barrie is a bit more challenging because Holland has to find a veteran to replace him with.