Edmonton Oilers Rank Last In Salary Cap Rankings
Daily Faceoff has ranked the Edmonton Oilers last in salary cap efficiency. This comes as no surprise after the website began its annual salary cap rankings list and after a deep dive into the numbers determined that there isn’t a team in a worse situation financially than the Oilers. It isn’t a shock given the Oilers current salary cap woes. The team finds itself with just 21 players on the roster and only $382,499 in cap space. Though finishing dead last on the list is new, Edmonton ranked second last in last year’s version of the list.
Daily Faceoff’s ranking system looks at no-move clauses, dead cap space, the quality of long-term contracts, bargain contracts, and the good deals versus the bad ones. Unfortunately, based on those criteria, it is easy to see why the Oilers find themselves at the bottom of that list. Edmonton has several problematic contracts on their books, and while they have some bargains like Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The bad deals outweigh the great ones.
Darnell Nurse is a really good defenseman; he eats a ton of minutes for the Oilers and plays a lot of tough situations. However, he does suffer a lot of mental lapses, and at $9.25 million a season, he just doesn’t bring the offensive upside you would like to see in a defenseman making that kind of money. Nurse is also likely to wear down as the miles pile up on his body. Those difficult minutes require that he play with a ton of physicality. It could take its toll on the 28-year-old when he gets on the wrong side of 30.
Some of the other bad contracts on the Oilers are goaltender Jack Campbell at $5MM per season as well as third-line winger Warren Foegele and third-pairing defenceman Brett Kulak at $2.75 million each. The contracts come in addition to the nearly $2MM per year the Oilers are still paying on the James Neal buyout.
On the surface, these contracts don’t look like outrageous overpayments because all the players listed above are still functional NHLers. However, in the flat cap era Campbell, Foegele, and Kulak are all replacement-level NHLers who could have been replaced by other players on contracts of less than $1MM per season. Couple that with the mishandling of Nurse’s previous bridge deals and it all amounts to around $10MM in inefficient salary cap spending that could lead to big problems for the Oilers down the road when they need to offer extensions to McDavid, Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard.
Pacific Notes: Karlsson, Kraken, Oilers
Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has made it known he’d like to move to a team that has an eye on winning now. But with four years left on his contract at a cap hit of $11.5MM, a trade is proving to be difficult to do. In his latest piece for NBC Sports Bay Area, Sheng Peng examines another possibility for both sides, a mutual contract termination. He’d be walking away from the remaining $39MM in salary but coming off a Norris Trophy-winning season, it stands to reason he could get a big chunk of that back over the next several seasons with a team that’s more of his choosing. On the flip side, the Sharks wouldn’t get anything in return but would save a significant amount of cash that they’d otherwise be retaining to help facilitate a move. It’s not the likeliest of options at this point but if a viable trade fails to materialize, perhaps it’s an option that is considered at some point.
More from the Pacific:
- Seattle is one of the teams where the backup goalie is not yet set in stone for next season with veteran Chris Driedger set to battle the recently re-signed Joey Daccord for the spot. Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times suggests that the Kraken would be better off with Daccord in the second-string position from an organizational depth perspective since there’s much less of a risk of Driedger and his $3.5MM AAV being claimed than it is for Daccord and his $1.2MM price tag. Daccord was the better of the two goalies with AHL Coachella Valley last season but Driedger’s NHL career numbers (2.45 GAA, .917 SV% in 65 games) are certainly better than Daccord’s (3.64 GAA, .884 SV% in 19 appearances).
- Even with the salary cap expected to rise faster starting in 2024-25, it will certainly be difficult for the Oilers to keep both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the fold. Postmedia’s David Staples posits that both middlemen – who could conceivably command the maximum 20% of the cap on their next contracts if they looked to get top dollar – might have to settle for something in the 14% range which, depending on how much the cap moves, could put their contracts both in the $12.5MM territory which is what McDavid is currently making. Can a team with two deals at that price point still have enough depth to seriously contend? That’s a question Edmonton certainly hopes they’ll have a chance to answer. Draisaitl is signed for two more years while McDavid is under contract for three more seasons.
Ken Holland To Honor Final Season Of Contract
Sportsnet is reporting that Edmonton Oilers president of hockey ops and general manager Ken Holland told the media that the long-time NHL executive intends to honor the final season of his five-year contract. Holland added that he isn’t sure how long he will stay in the role but he has unfinished business.
Edmonton has been a disappointment in each of the four seasons that Holland has been at the helm, they’ve qualified for the post season all four years, however they’ve only advanced past the second round once. The Oilers had another strong regular season this year going 50-23-9, however they were ousted by the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round in six games.
Holland came into the organization with a lot of fanfare after leading the Detroit Red Wings to multiple Stanley Cups in his time in the motor city. However, in Edmonton he has been unable to build around the two best players in the game in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Holland has never been able to solidify Edmonton’s goaltending which was once again a big part of their undoing in the playoffs. Jack Campbell was brought in from the Toronto Maple Leafs on a five year $25MM contract, but he failed to live up to expectations. Stuart Skinner was fine in the regular season but the young netminder crumbled under the postseason pressure and was yanked several times after putting up an .883 save percentage.
Edmonton has also struggled to build up depth scoring beyond their top six. McDavid, Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did the heavy lifting this year, but the bottom six was a black hole. Warren Foegele but up 28 points in 67 games but beyond that there wasn’t much.
Holland will have his work cut out for him as he tries to give Edmonton another kick at the can. But given their lack of success in the postseason, fans are getting antsy as the Oilers enter the last couple years of McDavid and Draisaitl’s current contracts.
Pacific Notes: Draisaitl, Kannok Leipert, Ekman-Larsson, Ranford
Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl‘s season may not be over just yet. After getting eliminated in the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Vegas Golden Knights, Draisaitl told reporters today, including Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, that he may join Team Germany at the ongoing Men’s World Championship.
If he does go, it would be his sixth appearance for Germany at the tournament, his first since 2019. The 27-year-old, coming off a career-high 128 points in 2022-23, would immediately become the best player at the tournament. Germany’s gotten off to an unlucky start during the tournament, facing stiff competition in their first three games (Sweden, USA, Finland) and losing all of them, in regulation, by one goal. Having recorded 17 points in 15 games over his last two Worlds tournaments, he’d greatly improve Germany’s attack against weaker Group A opponents down the stretch and have them rolling into the playoff stage.
- The AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks have signed defender Alex Kannok Leipert to a one-year contract extension, as announced today. The 22-year-old defender has attended development camp with Vancouver while in Abbotsford on an AHL contract, and he’ll continue to work within the organization in hopes of earning an NHL deal. Since wrapping up his junior career with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants in 2020-21, Kannok Leipert has a goal and eight assists in 85 career AHL games, along with a +19 rating.
- Staying in the Canucks organization, Vancouver activated defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson from injured reserve today, per CapFriendly. Ekman-Larsson, 31, missed the last 27 games of the regular season with an ankle injury. With four years remaining on his contract carrying a $7.26MM cap hit, Ekman-Larsson recorded just two goals and 22 points in 54 games, matched with a -24 rating.
- One of the Los Angeles Kings’ longest-tenured members earned a promotion today, with the team naming Bill Ranford their director of goaltending after 17 seasons as a goalie coach. Under Ranford’s tutelage, the Kings showcased potential Hall of Famer Jonathan Quick in the crease en route to two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. The added responsibilities mean Ranford will not only oversee the coaching of goalies at the NHL level but he’ll also be involved in the development and scouting of goalies at all levels inside the organization.
Edmonton Oilers Notes: Staios, Bouchard, Yamamoto
Frank Seravalli had a lengthy discussion on the Daily Faceoff Rundown podcast about the future of the Edmonton Oilers. In the discussion Seravalli said he doesn’t expect huge changes on the ice, but he does believe that there will be changes to the management structure as they attempt to be “protective and proactive with Steve Staios.” Seravalli went on to say that the former Oilers defenseman is regarded in Oilers circles as being their general manager of the future and the club may want to shift their hierarchy to give Staios a bigger voice before another team scoops him up.
What that could look like remains to be seen, but Seravalli went on to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Oilers promoted current general manager Ken Holland to President of Hockey Ops which would allow Staios to shift over to Holland’s old job and preserve the teams already thin management group. Whatever management group is in place will have much work to be done this summer. The Oilers window for contention is beginning to close as superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl inch closer to unrestricted free agency. Draisaitl has just two years left on his current deal and McDavid has three. If the Oilers don’t get over the hump soon, they could find it difficult to retain the franchise cornerstones.
In other Oilers notes:
- Seravalli also spoke about the next contract for Evan Bouchard saying that he fully expects the Oilers to try and get the defenseman on a bridge contract due to their current salary cap predicament. The 23-year-old is coming off a good season in which he put up eight goals and 40 points in 81 regular season games, however in the playoffs the Oakville native exploded for 17 points in 12 games, including 15 points while quarterbacking the Oilers white hot powerplay. Seravalli wondered if a bridge contract would even be possible given how important Bouchard has been to the team since the mid-season Tyson Barrie trade. The advantage for the Oilers will be that Bouchard has no rights to arbitration at this time.
- Seravalli and Jason Gregor spoke about the Oilers need to upgrade the right wing spot this summer. This was echoed by Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic who believes that top six winger Kailer Yamamoto’s poor play in the playoffs might have turned him into a trade candidate. Yamamoto is due $3.1MM next season and struggled in the playoffs putting up just a single goal and four points in 12 games despite getting a lot of top six minutes. The Spokane native wasn’t much better in the regular season putting up 25 points in 58 games, a steep drop from his career high of 41 points in 81 games in 2021-22.
2023 Ted Lindsay Award Finalists Announced
The NHL has announced the 2023 Ted Lindsay Award nominees. The award is given to the most outstanding player in the NHL and is voted on by the players. The Ted Lindsay Award is very similar to the Hart Trophy, with the unique feature of the award being that is that it is voted on by members of the NHLPA. Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs won the award last year and was the fourth different winner in as many years.
This year the finalists for the award are San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson, Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, and right winger David Pastrňák of the Boston Bruins.
McDavid continues to be widely regarded as the best player in the world and it is hard to argue with the numbers. The 26-year-old put up video game like numbers this year with 64 goals and 89 assists in 82 regular season games on his way to a third consecutive Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer. McDavid outpaced the entire league by 25 points this season, with the second leading scorer being teammate Leon Draisaitl. He outscored fellow Ted Lindsay nominee Pastrňák by 40 points.
Pastrňák has a career year putting up 61 goals and 52 assists in 82 games as he led the Boston Bruins to a historical President’s Trophy winning regular season. The soon to be 27-year-old put up an incredible 43 even strength goals and 76 even strength points. Pastrňák nearly lapped his own team in scoring as he outscored the second leading Bruins scorer Brad Marchand by 46 points. Maybe the most impressive feat of all for Pastrňák was that he put up this incredible season in a contract year. Somehow the winger was able to keep out the noise and put-up terrific numbers before signing an eight year $90MM contract extension on March 2nd .
Speaking of historical seasons, defenseman Erik Karlsson eclipsed the 100 points mark this season finishing the year with 25 goals and 76 assists in 82 games. The smooth skating Swede was the first defenseman to top 100 points in 31 years. Even more impressive than that was the fact that Karlsson did it playing on a bad Sharks team while also dealing with his name being in trade talks all season. Karlsson topped his career high point total by 19, and quieted a lot of his harshest critics in what was an incredible offensive display.
It’ll be interesting to see who comes away with the Ted Lindsay award come June when the ceremony will be held in Nashville. McDavid is likely the favorite to pick up the award, however I wouldn’t discount a 100-point defenseman in this era as Karlsson is just the sixth defenseman ever to accomplish the feat.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Moore, Briere
The NHL released its Three Stars of the week ending April 2 and it shows a trio of league superstars who are gearing up for the postseason. Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was named the first star of the week. He started three games for the Lightning, winning them all, getting shutouts in two of those games and allowing just one goal in those three starts. Vasilevskiy shut out the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders while stopping 99 out of the 100 shots he faced in the past seven days.
Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers was the second star of the week. He helped the Oilers win all four of their games by scoring five goals and eight points as the Oilers officially clinched a playoff spot. His best game of the week came on Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks when he scored a hat trick in a 6-0 victory for the Oilers.
The league’s third star of the week was Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak. He continued his hot pace that has lasted all season, just like his team. The Bruins won three of their four games last week with Pastrnak scoring five goals and six points in those four games. He now has 56 goals and 103 points on the season and has played a big role in the Bruins already reaching 60 wins and clinching the President’s Trophy as the team with the best regular season record.
- Per Mark Divver of NHL.com, Detroit Red Wings prospect Cooper Moore found a new place to play next season. The defenseman has played the past three seasons at North Dakota, but will be heading to Quinnipiac next season as a senior. The 22 year old was a fifth-round pick of the Red Wings in 2019 and scored 13 points in 31 games at North Dakota last season.
- Mercyhurst forward Carson Briere has been released from the team, per Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News. Briere was caught on video pushing a wheelchair down a flight of stairs last month. He just finished his third season of college hockey, scoring five goals and 13 points in 30 games, but will not be back for a fourth season at Mercyhurst.
Snapshots: Three Stars Of March, Teravainen, Minnesota-Duluth
The NHL released its Three Stars for the month of March. Not surprisingly, the First Star of the month was Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid. It is the second consecutive month he was named the best player in the NHL and third time this season. McDavid helped the Oilers solidify their playoff standing in March, by putting up an incredible 11 goals and 29 points in 15 games, leading the team to a 12-2-1 record which not only ensures they will make the playoffs, but puts them just two points back of first overall in the Western Conference.
McDavid did have some help in March, with teammate Leon Draisaitl earning Second Star for the month of March. Draisaitl scored 11 goals himself and had 28 points in 15 games, putting him just one point back of McDavid’s incredible pace. The Oilers dynamic duo looks playoff ready with McDavid now leading the NHL in goals, assists and points and Draisaitl sitting second in the league in points and fourth in goals.
While the Oilers stars get plenty of attention, the NHL’s Third Star of March is a bit more underrated. Clayton Keller is putting together a great season for the Arizona Coyotes and is showing no signs of slowing down. The 24-year-old winger piled up 12 goals, which led the league, and 24 points in 16 March contests. He now has 36 goals, 46 assists and 82 points in 76 games this season, ensuring a point-per-game campaign. The Coyotes do not have a lot going for them these days, but Keller is proving to be a star to build around.
- Teuvo Teravainen was ruled out of the Carolina Hurricanes game against the Montreal Canadiens tonight, per a team release. The Finnish winger is a key part of the Hurricanes attack, especially with fellow wingers Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty out for the season with injury. The team announced that Teravainen is out with an illness, so although this is his second consecutive game missed, it should not turn into a long term absence which is great news for the Hurricanes who are trying to hold off the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
- Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune reports the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs will be keeping some key veterans for next season. UMD did not have its typical dominant season, finishing fifth in the NCHC Conference and failed to advance to the college hockey national playdowns. They have also a few veterans who are moving on, and a couple of underclassmen who chose to sign pro like Wyatt Kaiser or transfer to a different school like Isaac Howard and Luke Mylymok. It is not all bad news for UMD though, as three key veterans have chosen to return for a fifth season. Wingers Luke Loheit and Quinn Olson will be back as will goaltender Matthew Thiessen. Loheit had 19 points in 35 games this season and Olson had 24 points in 37 games which should give the Bulldogs a couple of wingers to lock into the top six next season. Thiessen had a 2.64 GAA and a .905 SV% in 19 games last season.
Morning Notes: NHLPA Poll, Quick, Canadiens
The NHLPA Player Poll has become a yearly fixture, giving fans an insight into what players have to say in popular public debates. This year’s edition dropped this morning with mostly expected results.
Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was voted by a wide margin as the goalie players would want in net with one game on the line for the second straight season, while the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar was voted best defenseman in the league by a landslide. Connor McDavid won “most impactful forward in a must-win game,” no doubt buoyed by last year’s electric playoff performance. Other winners were Patrick Kane for best stick-handler, Leon Draisaitl for best passer, Sidney Crosby for most complete player, Brad Marchand for least enjoy playing against (but want on your team), Joe Pavelski for most effective net-front player, and Aleksander Barkov for most underrated. Marie-Philip Poulin was also voted as the women’s hockey player that NHL players would most like to play alongside, past or present, and the Bell Centre was voted as having the best ice in the NHL for the fifth time.
In off-ice results, Las Vegas was voted the best road city to have an off day, Marc-Andre Fleury was voted best locker room presence, and Auston Matthews was voted as having the best shoe game.
More notes from around the NHL this morning:
- Now a Vegas Golden Knight, Stanley Cup-winning netminder Jonathan Quick continues to move up the all-time ranks. With last night’s road win against the Vancouver Canucks, Quick moved into sole possession of second place on the all-time wins list for American-born goaltenders, trailing only Ryan Miller. Quick now sits just 16 wins back of tying the all-time record with 375 wins under his belt.
- In some rare positive injury news for the Montreal Canadiens this season, Jake Evans has returned to practice in a full-contact jersey, while Jesse Ylonen has returned to practice after missing the team’s last game with an illness, per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Ylonen hasn’t looked out of place in his first extended NHL look this season, recording five goals and 12 points in 29 games. Evans is nearing a return after missing over two months with a lower-body injury.
NHL Announces 2023 All-Star Player Assignments
The 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition will take place tomorrow night, and today the league announced the full lineup of participants. Players from around the league will get to show off their unique abilities in several events, with each individual winner taking home $30,000.
Fastest Skater
Dylan Larkin, Detroit Red Wings
Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild
Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
Chandler Stephenson, Vegas Golden Knights
Andrei Svechnikov, Carolina Hurricanes
Breakaway Challenge
Roberto Luongo, Celebrity goaltender
Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals*
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins*
David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
*Ovechkin and Crosby are listed as “teaming up”
Tendy Tandem
Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators
Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers
Stuart Skinner, Edmonton Oilers
Ilya Sorokin, New York Islanders
Logan Thompson, Vegas Golden Knights
Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
Splash Shot
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche
Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers
Adam Fox, New York Rangers
Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators
Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
Accuracy Shooting
Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
Kevin Hayes, Philadelphia Flyers
Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils
Nazem Kadri, Calgary Flames
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
Brock Nelson, New York Islanders
Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
Pitch ‘n Puck
Johnny Gaudreau, Columbus Blue Jackets
Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes
Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars
Nick Suzuki, Montreal Canadiens
Hardest Shot
Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres
Seth Jones, Chicago Blackhawks
Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks