Edmonton Oilers: Three Free Agents That Can Replace Andrej Sekera

Edmonton Oilers’ Andrej Sekera out 6-9 months after rupturing his Achilles tendon. These are the Oilers’ options to replace him.

Edmonton Oilers: You’ve probably heard the news. Andrej Sekera is out indefinitely with a torn Achilles tendon. Horrible news for the Oilers and its fanbase.

If you’d like to hear a couple of guys rant and rave about what the Oilers could do to this upcoming season. Now that Sekera is out, check out the Oilers Live Podcast!

I believe that Edmonton was looking forward to going into the 2018/19 season with the following pairings:

• Klefbom/Larsson
• Russell/Sekera
• Nurse/Benning
• Gravel

Now that Sekera is out of the picture, they’re going to need to sign somebody to replace him and hopefully Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has learned his lesson from last season and does something to address that hole.

FREE AGENT CANDIDATES

Brandon Davidson – 26 years old –

Oilers fans are very familiar with Davidson as he’s been traded and re-signed with the team on multiple occasions over the last three years. He’s a big defender who can skate, has a cannon of a shot, and knows Todd McLellan’s systems.

To add to that, he’s the youngest of our options.

There are rumours that the Oilers had reached out to him to offer him a PTO.

Personally, I think this boat has sailed for the Oilers and Davidson for that matter, but I don’t see any teams lining up at Davidson’s door to get him under contract, so there may be smoke to this fire after all.

Cost: I’d argue about the same price he was paid when the Oilers re-signed him in 2016/17. $1.425M per year.

Slava Voynov – 28 years old

He’s the best available defender on the market right now, he’s a right show, and criminal history aside, he’d help the Oilers immediately. If you’re one who plays to win at all costs, Voynov might be your guy as he’s had 60pts over the last two seasons in the KHL.

Before that his career high with the Kings was 34pts.

Cost: When Voynov’s contract was terminated in 2015 he was making $4.166M per year. I’d venture a guess that is around what he’d be worth today with a higher salary cap being what it is.

Toby Enstrom – 33 years old

I don’t have too much of a problem with Toby Enstrom, to be honest. He’s not putting up 50pt seasons like he was early in his career with the Thrashers but he’s still as serviceable as Sekera would be if he were healthy.

I think part of Enstrom’s problems lie in where he was being deployed in Winnipeg and that he didn’t exactly fit into their new system. The Jets are much more physical, and Enstrom was no better than a 3rd pairing defenseman by the end of last year. Injuries didn’t help his cause.

Cost: Enstrom made $5.75M on his last contract, but given he’s still unsigned, I imagine he’s looking at taking a significant pay cut to play in the NHL again next season. Let’s say the Oilers would need to give the Swede $3M to play in Edmonton in 2018/19.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!