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 However, in the flat cap era Campbell, Foegele, and Kulak are all replacement-level NHLers who could have been replaced by other players on contracts of less than $1MM per season.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.
Oilers Notes: Bouchard, Staios, Buyouts, RFAs
The Edmonton Oilers find themselves in a very similar position to last offseason: a marginal amount of salary cap space that will immediately be eaten up by re-signing their pending restricted free agents. The highest priority among them is 23-year-old Evan Bouchard, who led all playoff defensemen in scoring with 17 points in just 12 games.
In a sitdown piece with The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Oilers general manager Ken Holland said discussions have begun on a new deal for Bouchard, but the team will be “challenged” to get it done. Holland referenced last season’s one-year agreement with Ryan McLeod, and a similar one could make sense for Edmonton and Bouchard. By the time the salary cap returns to its normal year-to-year jump, Bouchard will still be under team control as a restricted free agent.
Holland also mentioned he doesn’t feel pressure to get a deal done with Bouchard by the time unrestricted free agency opens on July 1.
More from Holland on the state of the Oilers:
- As soon as Michael Andlauer entered into a purchase agreement for the Ottawa Senators yesterday, rumors began swirling about the Oilers’ current special assistant to the GM, Steve Staios, being brought in for a higher-ranking position in the Sens’ front office. Staios and Andlauer worked together for many years during their time with the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. Holland said he hasn’t thought about it yet, but said “it’s hard to hold them back” when rising front office stars get better opportunities elsewhere. Holland didn’t seem particularly interested in putting up a fight to keep Staios, saying he prefers to keep their current assistant GMs in place.
- Holland said he hopes to avoid a buyout this offseason when asked about the possibility but didn’t rule it out. The two most likely candidates would be wingers Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele, who both have one year remaining on their contracts but carry slightly overpriced cap hits for the offense and consistency they provide. Per CapFriendly, buying out Yamamoto would save Edmonton $2.67MM next season and cost them $533,334 in 2024-25. A Foegele buyout doesn’t make as much sense, saving them less than Yamamoto in 2023-24 ($2.167MM) and costing them more in 2024-25 ($1.083MM). The NHL’s first buyout window commences tomorrow, 48 hours after the end of the Stanley Cup Final, and closes June 30 at 4 p.m. CT.
- Lastly, Holland confirmed he would qualify all of Edmonton’s remaining RFAs, save for one: Noah Philp, who Holland revealed has decided to retire after what was a tough year for him personally. Philp, 24, had his first full pro season last year, registering 37 points in 70 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. The University of Alberta product expressed a desire to stay closer to home in Calgary and be with his family.
Evening Notes: Driedger, Kartye, Foegele
Driedger didn’t see any action with Seattle this year after struggling in 2021-22, he was unseated from his position as the backup after the club signed veteran Martin Jones. The Winnipeg native has one more year left on his three-year contract that carries a cap hit of $3.5MM and could very well be bought out this summer to free up cap space. Driedger was terrific in his two seasons in Florida but has struggled for the Kraken since coming over in the expansion draft and signing his deal.
In other evening news:
- Forward Tye Kartye has also been sent down to Coachella Valley by the Seattle Kraken. The 22-year-old had an eventful first season in professional hockey after spending his entire OHL career with the Soo Greyhounds. Kartye had a terrific year in the AHL putting up 28 goals and 29 assists in 72 regular season games and then joined the Kraken for their playoff run where he became a dependable depth scoring option as he put up five points in ten playoff games.
- TSN 1260’s Jason Gregor tweeted today that Edmonton Oilers Warren Foegele played through an apparent wrist injury since February. Gregor goes on to say that it limited the forwards mobility and impacted his shooting. Foegele struggled early in the playoffs but was one of the best Oilers forwards in the series against the Vegas Golden Knights as he had two goals in Edmonton’s six game series loss. The former Carolina Hurricane had an MRI today and it will determined in the coming days whether surgery will be required.
Evening Notes: Price, Laine, Panik, Oilers Injuries
When Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was announced at tonight’s home opener, the standing ovation he received from the crowd was about the least surprising bit of news this evening. Price, who is one of, if not the best goaltender of his generation, has been a staple in the Canadiens lineup since his debut in 2007-08. His recent injury woes have forced him to take a step back from the game in order to try to return to full health not only on the ice, but off of it. Whether he is able to come back and play in the NHL again remains to be seen, but for now Montreal will have to proceed with Price on the sidelines.
Recently, The Athletic’s Arpon Basu had a chance to speak with Price about his health and where he stands right now. Unfortunately, the update was far from ideal. As Price said, “[a]gain, my knee still isn’t doing great. Like, I’m still not walking up a set of stairs pain-free yet. I still don’t feel like my knee’s in a place where I’m going to be able to play hockey.” Price’s own words seem to indicate that for now, the focus isn’t necessarily on hockey, but a quality of life at the moment. Price added that he’s also focusing on being able to do things in the future such as skate and play sports with his children (recall Washington Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom discussing similar issues a couple of months ago). Interestingly, Price said those are things he wants to do “when I’m, you know, officially done,” language Basu points to as perhaps significant given the line between Price being ‘officially done’ and where he is now is a very thin one.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets announced forward Patrik Laine left tonight’s game at the Carolina Hurricanes with an upper-body injury and will not return. The forward appeared to be in some discomfort after being sandwiched along the boards by Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce. Laine had already contributed a goal in tonight’s contest prior to leaving, the only Blue Jackets tally at the time of writing.
- According to CapFriendly, the New York Islanders have loaned forward Richard Panik to Lausanne HC of Switzerland’s National League. Panik, 31, had been with the Islanders organization since he was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in the deal that sent Nick Leddy to Detroit in the summer of 2021. Outside of a brief four game stretch on Long Island, the team had buried Panik and his $2.75MM salary in the AHL last season, which he otherwise split between the Bridgeport Islanders and Chicago Wolves. While on loan, Panik’s buried cap hit of $250,000 (Detroit retained $1.375MM in the deal, $1.125MM is buried) will continue to count against the Islanders cap. By going to Lausanne, the veteran forward should have a chance at more consistent minutes far closer to home and should give the Islanders more opportunities to get younger players into the Bridgeport lineup.
- The Edmonton Oilers will be without forwards Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele for tonight’s opening night matchup against the Vancouver Canucks. It’s unclear what injuries either player is suffering from. However, because Edmonton began the season with just 21 players on its roster for cap compliance purposes, they will only be able to dress 17 skaters – all that are left on the roster after Yamamoto and Foegele. Sportsnet’s Bob Stauffer was the first to report.
Pacific Notes: Kraken, Foegele, Canucks
After acquiring winger Oliver Bjorkstrand from Columbus on Friday, the heavy lifting for Seattle’s offseason appears to be done. However, GM Ron Francis told reporters, including Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, that he’s still open to adding another depth defenseman and another depth forward. The team has roughly $3.6MM in cap space per CapFriendly with Morgan Geekie still needing a new contract that will cut into that cap space. Ryan Donato was an intriguing non-tender earlier this month likely due to his arbitration eligibility despite recording 16 goals and 15 assists (good for sixth in team scoring) and Francis indicated that the door is still open to his return as well at the right price.
More from the Pacific Division:
- With the Oilers being among the teams that are still looking to clear out some money this summer, Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal posits that the cleanest option for Edmonton might be to move winger Warren Foegele. Acquired in a trade from Carolina last summer, the 26-year-old signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal that has two seasons remaining. Foegele had 26 points in 82 games last season but posted 127 hits (a new career-high) which could be of interest to teams looking for some grit in the bottom six. Edmonton still has to re-sign forwards Jesse Puljujarvi, Ryan McLeod, and Kailer Yamamoto and are basically down to the LTIR space from Oscar Klefbom and Mike Smith ($6.367MM combined). It will be difficult to sign those three with that money so finding a spot for Foegele would certainly help their cause.
- Winger Ty Ronning expressed an interest in signing with Vancouver this summer to play with AHL Abbotsford, notes Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province. However, the team indicated that their preference was to focus on the development of their prospects which would have limited Ronning’s playing time and resulted in him signing with Minnesota’s farm team instead. The 24-year-old spent five years with WHL Vancouver so joining the Canucks would have been a homecoming of sorts.
COVID Notes: Halak, Sabres, Connolly, Sheary, Oilers, Stutzle, Sillinger
The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been placed into COVID protocol. The veteran was set to get the start for today’s game against Carolina but instead, that will go to Thatcher Demko with Spencer Martin coming up from the taxi squad. Halak has made just eight appearances this season and has a $1.25MM bonus pending when he gets to his tenth. He’ll now have to wait a little longer to get that bonus, one that has recently landed himself in trade speculation as well.
More COVID news from around the NHL:
- Sabres winger Tage Thompson and center Peyton Krebs have both cleared COVID protocol, notes Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. Thompson will suit up tonight in Detroit while they will take it a little slower with Krebs and re-assess his status on Sunday.
- Blackhawks winger Brett Connolly has entered COVID protocol, relays John Dietz of the Daily Herald (Twitter link). The veteran has only played in four games with Chicago this season and has spent most of the year in the minors. Defenseman Ian Mitchell was recalled from AHL Rockford just a day after being sent down.
- The Capitals announced (Twitter link) that winger Conor Sheary has been placed in COVID protocol. The 29-year-old has impressed in his second season in Washington, notching ten goals and nine assists in 31 games, good for third on the team in goals.
- The Oilers have taken wingers Warren Foegele and Tyler Benson plus defenseman Slater Koekkoek out of COVID protocol, mentions Sportsnet’s Jack Michaels (Twitter link). With those activations, Edmonton – who last played on January 5th – will be able to dress 18 skaters against Ottawa tonight.
- The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they have removed winger Tim Stutzle from COVID protocol. The just-turned 20-year-old has had a bit of a quieter sophomore season than expected, collecting five goals and ten assists in 29 games.
- The Blue Jackets have placed center Cole Sillinger in COVID protocol, per a team release. The rookie has held down a regular spot in the lineup with Columbus this season, notching 13 points in 35 games. Liam Foudy has been recalled from the taxi squad to take Sillinger’s place on the roster.
Oilers Re-Sign Warren Foegele
After acquiring Warren Foegele earlier this week, the Oilers wasted little time getting him signed, announcing that they’ve inked him to a three-year deal that carries a cap hit of $2.75MM. He was tendered a $2.25MM qualifying offer at the beginning of the week.
The 25-year-old was acquired from Carolina in exchange for defenseman Ethan Bear, a deal that opened up a spot for Edmonton to turn around and sign Cody Ceci while also giving them some grit on the wing. Last season, Foegele played in 53 games for the Hurricanes, notching 10 goals and 10 assists while averaging a career-high 14:09 per game. He was a little quieter in the playoffs, however, scoring just once while adding a single assist in their ten postseason contests.
Foegele had made it known that he was hoping to have a chance at playing a bigger role and he could get that opportunity with Edmonton. The Oilers have used Zack Kassian in the top six at times to add some grit on their scoring lines and Foegele could conceivably fill that role with a bit more consistency. If that happens, a $2.75MM price tag could turn into a team-friendly deal fairly quickly.
The contract buys out the remaining two years of RFA eligibility as well as Foegele’s first season of UFA eligibility. He was eligible to file for arbitration tomorrow but that won’t be needed now. Meanwhile, Edmonton is down to just one regular player as an RFA in winger Kailer Yamamoto who is not arbitration-eligible.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the deal was close.
Hurricanes Re-Sign Warren Foegele
The Hurricanes have taken care of their last arbitration-bound restricted free agent, announcing the re-signing of winger Warren Foegele to a one-year contract, avoiding a hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday. The deal is worth $2.15MM which will also represent his qualifying offer next offseason where he’ll once again be an RFA with arbitration rights.
The 24-year-old had career highs across the board last season, notching 13 goals and 17 assists in 68 regular season games while logging 13:43 per contest. While he wasn’t the most productive in the playoffs, his lone point (a goal) was the series-clincher in the Qualifying Round against the Rangers.
This contract represents quite the raise from his entry-level deal which carried an AAV of just $800K but it also highlights how he went from a little-known energy player to someone that is a key part of their bottom six up front. He’s likely to remain in that role for next season as Carolina has had very limited turnover among their forwards; Justin Williams retired earlier this offseason with Jesper Fast inking a three-year deal to take his place on the roster.
With the signing, the Hurricanes now have a little under $1MM in cap space, per CapFriendly so their spending for next season is likely done. However, GM Don Waddell has a pair of key players in defenseman Dougie Hamilton and winger Andrei Svechnikov entering the final year of their respective deals so now with all of their NHL restricted free agents taken care of (Roland McKeown and Oliwer Kaski are also RFAs with Kaski already playing in the KHL), expect Carolina to shift their focus towards trying to get those two players locked up.