Pacific Notes: Oilers, Benson, Wright

The presence of Dylan Holloway is what ultimately might be the final push for the Oilers to part ways with Jesse Puljujarvi, suggests Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (subscription link).  However, when that happens remains to be seen.  Nugent-Bowman notes that Edmonton isn’t interested in a futures-based return for Puljujarvi which doesn’t help an already-thin trade market since a lot of teams can’t take on his $3MM AAV.  However, while moving Puljujarvi would free up some needed cap space, they’d be taking a risk with promoting Holloway into a prominent role considering he has basically half a pro season under his belt with their AHL affiliate.  Long-term, they should take comfort that Holloway could fill Puljujarvi’s spot but it might be a case of later rather than sooner that the youngster pushes Puljujarvi out.

More from the Pacific:

• Still with the Oilers, they’ll be without winger Tyler Benson for a little while with the team not sure how much time he’ll miss, notes Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor (Twitter link). On its own, a player on the fringes of the roster missing time isn’t typically notable in itself but as PuckPedia points out (Twitter link), Benson was on Edmonton’s roster long enough last season to have his cap hit count in full instead of being prorated through season-opening IR.  With cap space at a premium for Edmonton, having Benson count in full to start the year if he’s only going to miss a couple of weeks certainly won’t help things.
• While it’s not set in stone just yet, Kraken GM Ron Francis told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription link) that he believes Shane Wright will spend the full season in the NHL. Seattle took the center fourth overall back in July which came as a surprise to many as he was viewed as the projected top selection for most of the season.  With Matthew Beniers, Yanni Gourde, and Jared McCann all ahead of him down the middle on the depth chart, Wright might not get a lot of playing time early on but that will also allow him to be eased in from a development perspective which, in the long run, might be ideal for the 18-year-old.