Edmonton Oilers’ path to salary cap compliance: 4 options to consider

Since we’re now in beautiful summer weather and just finished Canada Day, here’s a seasonal analogy of how the Edmonton Oilers’ management group acted during the first day of free agency.

Jeff Jackson, CEO of hockey operations, and the rest of the staff were like a group of buddies heading to the grocery store before a weekend vacation at the cottage. No list needed. Just grab what looks good.

They filled their cart with a nice selection of barbecue items, a few vegetable platters and some tasty snacks, and bought most of the items on sale. It was a great catch. There was something to smile about.

And then, when they got home, they realized they had forgotten some buns for the hamburgers and hot dogs, in this case, the right tusk. No worries, they can wait to eat them and go back to town later to pick up the missing items.

The biggest problem came when they opened a fridge that had been left three-quarters full by the last guest – Ken Holland – and now they have to find a way to fit it all in.

The refrigerator, in his analogy, represents the salary cap.

Jackson and his staff have done a great job, including bringing in Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner, while keeping Adam Henrique, Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark on bargain-basement deals. The Oilers should have the best forward group in the NHL. It could be a combination that rivals what they had in the 1980s.

But the fact remains that the Oilers are almost $2.5 million over the $88 million salary cap. Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway are free agents and also need new contracts, though both are expected to get cheap one- or two-year deals.

The dead money consists of excess bonuses from the 2023-24 contracts of Brown and Corey Perry, as well as the buyouts of James Neal and Jack Campbell.

The Oilers have until their season-opening roster is released in October to comply with the salary cap. There’s still time to properly stockpile all that food before it spoils. But they better start soon.

Here are their options, each with their challenges.

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Trade Kane

Looking at the depth chart, especially the top six, it’s not hard to see why so many fans are clamoring for this to happen.

Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are all firmly established on the top two lines. Jackson spoke yesterday about Arvidsson spending time alongside Draisaitl and that Skinner is a good complement to the two superstars.

Evander Kane probably doesn’t deserve to be on the fourth line, but let’s leave aside the Stanley Cup Final third line of Henrique, Brown and Janmark for now. No matter how you look at it, Kane’s role seems to be diminishing.

But trading the 32-year-old winger is much easier said than done.

Kane has a $5.125 million salary cap hit for this season and next, a steep price for any other team, and costly for the Oilers, as they will likely have to upgrade the deal. He has suffered terrible injuries over the past two seasons, which has hurt his production. He has also burned bridges around the league over the years, limiting his market.

Oh, and Kane’s no-trade clause further limits this deal. He holds all the cards, at least until it’s downgraded to a partial no-trade clause on March 1.

There are a lot of complications here. Finally, a league source confirmed that the Oilers have not yet asked Kane to give up his NMC.

Place Kane on LTIR

It’s not out of the question considering Kane played the playoffs with a sports hernia until he was pushed out of the lineup after Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Jackson said on Monday that Kane may need a second opinion this summer regarding his injury and could require surgery. However, he added that there was no reason to expect the winger to be placed on long-term leave at this time.

Things should become clearer on this front in the coming weeks.

There’s one important consideration before putting Kane on the LTIR list: The Oilers will need to clear roster and cap space if he’s able to return during the regular season. Basically, this will only help the Oilers if Kane is expected to miss the entire season — and that’s the case.

Otherwise, they could find themselves in a sticky situation when he’s ready to return.

Trade This and Demote at Least One Cheap Player

If Kane stays put and is expected to play in the Oct. 9 season opener against one of his former teams, the Winnipeg Jets, the next player on the list of players to be traded is Cody Ceci. The right-handed defenseman is the second player likely to be traded in terms of salary cap space.

Jackson hinted that might be a possibility when he suggested Monday that left-handed Broberg, now a regular starter, might still have to slide and play on the right side. It shouldn’t be necessary for him to do that with Ceci and Evan Bouchard under contract and Josh Brown and Troy Stecher signing multi-year NHL contracts.

The Oilers can’t recoup the money in the form of retention or contracted players for Ceci in this scenario. Even so, giving up their $3.25 million salary cap hit would put them back in the black with less than $800,000. That’s probably not enough to sign either Broberg or Holloway, much less both.

Players making no more than $1.15 million can have their contracts fully buried in the AHL without affecting the team’s salary cap. Waive and demote (if unclaimed) one of Derek Ryan or Josh Brown could provide enough money for Broberg and Holloway to sign one-year contracts. Doing the same with Ryan and Brown or Stecher would almost certainly be enough to get the job done.

Trade two of Ceci, Kulak or McLeod

These are the three players (besides Kane) who are even in the running to be traded. All the others have trade protection, were signed only a few days ago, make so little money that it doesn’t change anything in the equation or are named Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm or Stuart Skinner.

Ceci has one year left on his contract. Brett Kulak has two seasons left with a $2.75 million salary cap hit. Ryan McLeod is in the final year of his $2.1 million contract and has arbitration rights next summer.

The interest in transferring This is obvious. The right defender position number 2 is the one that needs to be improved the most in the squad.

Trading Kulak would allow the Oilers to use Broberg on the left side of the defense. He could also be more valuable to other teams.

McLeod is a speedy, versatile and defensively capable forward, but he was pushed lower in the lineup during the playoffs and that seems even more evident after Monday’s signings.

The Oilers should be able to get decent returns in any trade. Again, the goal here should be to get future assets back rather than cash back.

(Photo by Evander Kane: Bob Frid/USA Today)