It has been a busy week for the Oilers on the extension front as they’ve signed center Connor McDavid along with defensemen Jake Walman and Mattias Ekholm to contract extensions. If they have their way, there’s at least one more to come.
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug recently reported (Twitter link) that Edmonton has engaged in extension talks for pending UFA defenseman Brett Kulak. However, unlike those other players, nothing appears to be imminent at this time.
The 31-year-old is in the final season of a four-year, $11MM contract and he is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July if a new deal can’t be reached by then. At times, Kulak’s contract has been high enough to lead to trade speculation when the Oilers needed to free up some cap space but each time, they’ve found a way to open up the cap room while keeping him around.
This is Kulak’s fifth season in Edmonton after being acquired from Montreal in 2022 for blueliner William Lagesson and a pair of draft picks (one of which was used to select Lane Hutson a few months later). Early in his tenure with the team, he was used in more of a third-pairing role which made the price point a bit of a premium for that role.
However, head coach Kris Knoblauch leaned on Kulak a lot more last season as his ATOI jumped by more than five minutes a night from 15:23 per game to 20:32. That jumped even higher in the playoffs to 23:25, second among all Edmonton defenders.
That usage will make locking down an early extension a little trickier. Edmonton’s preference would likely be to keep paying him in that number five range with a price tag that should slot in around the $3.5MM mark. On the other hand, Kulak’s camp will probably be seeking a deal more commensurate with a number four defender, something around a million or so more per season.
As things stand, the Oilers have around $17.7MM in cap space for next season, per PuckPedia, based on the original salary cap projection of $104.5MM for 2026-27. However, they still have half a dozen or so roster spots to fill with that money, including a goalie tandem. As the market for netminders continues to go up, it’s possible that they’ll need to spend half of their cap room or more on that position which would make it difficult to fit Kulak back onto their books if his next contract is around a quarter of that cap space.
Accordingly, it’s not too surprising that talks haven’t progressed quickly as it makes sense for both sides to see what type of role Kulak will have this season while also seeing if one of their goaltenders will be worth keeping for 2026-27 and beyond. But at this point, it’s clear that GM Stan Bowman wants to keep the veteran in the fold for a little while longer. It just might take a while for it to happen.