Oilers Notes: Yamamoto, Bouchard, Ryan, Free Agency

After a disappointingly early playoff exit, the Edmonton Oilers are headed into another pivotal offseason. Desperate to build a Stanley Cup contender around the team’s two all-world talents, the Oilers don’t have a ton of cap space to add reinforcements to their roster, so they’ll need to get creative in finding ways to support their existing stars. One avenue the team could go down is moving a player taking up a decent amount of cap space, namely 2017 first-round pick Kailer Yamamoto. The 24-year-old is set to make $3.1MM against the cap next season yet provided the Oilers with just 25 points in 58 games this season.

The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman reports that the Oilers are “leaning toward moving” Yamamoto and are hoping they can find a team willing to acquire the player “without the Oilers having to retain salary or offer a sweetener.” (subscription link) Yamamoto did manage 20 goals and 41 points last season, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a team would have interest in him as a bounce-back candidate. In the case that trade interest does not materialize, though, Nugent-Bowman does note that the Oilers “appear open to buying out Yamamoto,” a move that would save them $2.6MM this season at the cost of $533k in dead cap next summer.

Some other notes regarding the Oilers:

• One of the significant reasons the team would likely hope to create some cap space via a Yamamoto departure would be to clear room for contract extensions for the Oilers’ top restricted free agent: defenseman Evan Bouchard. The 23-year-old 2018 10th overall pick has hit 40 points in each of the last two seasons and is coming off of an extremely productive playoff run that saw him post 17 points in just 12 games. Nugent-Bowman writes that the Oilers are likely to pursue a bridge contract with Bouchard, as “anything more than two years appears unlikely.” Noah Dobson, another 2018 top pick, had comparable scoring numbers to Bouchard last summer and secured a three-year, $4MM AAV pact. That could be a deal used as a reference point for these negotiations.
• 36-year-old veteran center Derek Ryan performed admirably as the Oilers’ fourth-line center this past season, scoring 13 goals and 20 points in 80 games while contributing to his team’s penalty kill. Nugent-Bowman reports that “there is mutual interest in Ryan returning to the Oilers,” and that “it’s hard to see how something isn’t figured out there” to bring the 500-game NHL veteran back to Edmonton. Such a move would provide valuable continuity to the Oilers’ bottom-six, while also serving as a nice reward for Ryan’s hard work.
• While the Oilers have made significant early free-agency investments in recent years, specifically in the signings of Jack Campbell and Zach Hyman, don’t expect a similar move by the time the free agent frenzy comes around later this summer. Nugent-Bowman reports that there will “be no Zach Hyman-type offer issued to anyone” at the start of free agency and that it’s far more likely that the Oilers will target an “undervalued or underperforming young player” who they can add on a cheap contract, or a “bargain bin” veteran talent who can be the right fit for a specific role in head coach Jay Woodcroft’s plans at an affordable cap hit.