While expansion was the early headline in what will be a busy NHL offseason, there are still several other storylines for each team in the months to come. Here is a closer look at what lies ahead for the Edmonton Oilers.
After years of continued struggles, everything came together rather nicely for the Oilers in 2016-17. Connor McDavid built on a strong rookie season with a Hart Trophy campaign while Cam Talbot provided the strong goaltending they had been seeking for a while. As a result, they made it to the second round, providing plenty of reason for optimism in Edmonton.
GM Peter Chiarelli has been busy already this offseason with the recent trade of winger Jordan Eberle to the Islanders for center Ryan Strome plus the re-signing of Kris Russell. Even with those off the board, there is still work to be done. Here are three remaining offseason keys for the Oilers.
McDavid Extension
There has been talk of McDavid’s second contract since the time he signed his first one. He has more than delivered in his first two seasons with Edmonton and Chiarelli has already indicated that this will be his top priority this summer.
There are two questions in play here – how much will it cost and how long will the contract be? Regardless of the term, it’s going to be among the highest cap hits in the league and I don’t think anyone on either side would expect otherwise.
The term presents the more intriguing question. He’s eligible to sign for as many as eight years and he sits four years away from unrestricted free agency eligibility. While many have expected he’ll take the eight years, it was suggested last month that a five year term would be more preferable to McDavid. While that would result in a lower pay day now, it would allow him to sign his next contract with all years being UFA ones and likely a higher salary cap at that time. Whichever way they go, there’s little reason to think this won’t get done around July 1st, the first day he’s eligible to sign.
New Deal For Draisaitl
Edmonton has the highest scoring restricted free agent this summer in center Leon Draisaitl. The German forward is coming off a breakout season where he tallied 29 goals and 48 assists and has shown himself to be a number one center.
Offer sheets are extremely rare now but given the massive contract McDavid will get on his next deal, some have wondered if Draisaitl could be targeted. Chiarelli has already stated he’ll match any offer but that might not stop a team from trying. If an opposing squad wanted to make life difficult for Edmonton cap-wise, they could offer as much $9.8MM for five years with the offer sheet compensation being two first rounders, a second, and a third.
The expectation is that the two sides should be able to work out a deal shortly after the McDavid one is finalized (and it’s that contract that will likely lay the foundation for this one) but if that isn’t the case, there may be a team that decides to try to roll the dice on an offer sheet (assuming Draisaitl is willing to sign it, of course). Assuming there is no offer sheet, a new deal for the 21 year old should come in around the $7MM per season range.
Add Defensive Depth
The Oilers will be without blueliner Andrej Sekera for a notable period to start next season. He suffered a torn ACL against the Ducks in the second round and will be out anywhere from six to nine months. On the shorter end, he’d miss roughly the first six weeks of the season but at the longer end of the scale, that could be half the season.
The team is in much better shape defensively than they were a couple of years ago with both Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning faring well as youngsters but behind them, there isn’t much that’s ready right away. Griffin Reinhart would have helped in that regard but he was picked by the Golden Knights in expansion.
Veteran Eric Gryba is set to become an unrestricted free agent and while bringing him back would help in terms of depth, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them set their heights a little higher in free agency. It’s not likely that they will go after the big names – especially with their big two forwards set to receive huge raises – but finding someone capable of playing a fourth or fifth defender role would help ease the pain of missing Sekera early on while giving them strong third pairing options when everyone is healthy.
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