Recapping free agency so far this offseason

Free agency is pretty much over as the Edmonton Oilers didn’t make any major acquisitions as here is a recap of what has gone done so far this offseason.

Well, the start of free agency has come and gone for the Edmonton Oilers. I was hoping to have a little more to report, but the biggest news of all came via trade – and I’ll get to that a bit later.

For anyone expecting the Oilers to be in on any of the big fish in free agency and was thus disappointed over how Ken Holland performed is incredibly ignorant and oblivious to the fact that we have to stay within the salary cap or we face both financial repercussions and forfeiture of draft picks. Let’s see what we did.

1. Markus Granlund

When you have a team with as bad a PK and goals against as the Oilers had last year, you need all the help you can get, even from bottom 6 players.

Holland found 1 such guy to help out. Enter Granlund, a guy who can help out in both areas as well as contribute some secondary offense for the bottom 6. Don’t expect much as the high watermark for goals is 19 and the high watermark for points is 32, but whatever Granlund is able to contribute is still better than whoever’s place he takes from last year.

Granlund is known as a defensively responsible guy who is a PK specialist, something the Oilers could use considering their PK finished 30th last year in the league.

Holland picked him up for 1 year and $1.3 mill, money well spent for a bottom 6 player.

2. Mike Smith

This acquisition I’m not so crazy about but I’ll give Holland the benefit of the doubt since he has such a stellar track record.

Smith struggled last year in Calgary and ended up losing his starting spot to rookie David Rittich. He did get it back in the playoffs and was pretty solid, finishing 10th among goalies in the playoffs in sv% with .917, pretty good for a guy whose team bowed out in the 1st round.

It’s going to be hard to know exactly what we’re getting with Smith, but in theory at least he should make for a solid 1A with Koskinen and push him for starts.

3. Buying out Andrej Sekera

If you want to know why we bought out Sekera, take a look at how much cap space the Oilers have as of today: https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/oilers

Now subtract the amount of money that we saved with the buyout, $3 million a season, from that. Yeah, it’s not pretty. We’d have -600K in cap space, and that’s not good.

So for all those fans who kept saying “Why did we buy out Sekera? We didn’t use his cap space for anything.” Yeah, turns out we used it not to incur penalties or lose draft picks. A very legitimate reason to buy out an overpaid vet who at this point would’ve been a 3rd pairing guy at best.

He was immediately snapped up by Dallas, who are paying him $1.5 million for one year, much closer to the paycheck for the player he is now. The Oilers, meanwhile, at this point in time appear to be simply leaving the spot open for internal options on it, like Joel Persson or maybe Caleb Jones.

That being said, there’s lots of time before training camp for Holland to go the external hire route for that spot if he wants to, but regardless of who plays there, it will definitely be cheaper than playing Sekera in that spot.

4. Re-signing Alex Chiasson and Jujhar Khaira

Might as well combine the re-signings into one number because it’s not as big a news story. We all saw the story unfold of how AC came to camp on a PTO with no expectations and ended up earning a contract and scoring 22 goals and 38 points, both career highs. Expect him to get a much bigger paycheck in two offseasons if he shows that last year wasn’t a fluke for him.

Khaira, meanwhile, is one of the only Oilers drafted outside the 1st round that has made good on his bet in the last decade or so. He had a bit of a down year offensively last year, but is just starting his PPY and thus far has shown an ability for secondary offense, responsible defensive play, physicality, fighting, and even spot duty in the top six. All of those traits will come in handy going forward for the Oilers, as Khaira is a solid re-up for the bottom six. Well worth two years at $1.2 million apiece.

5. Tomas Jurco

It’s tough to say where Jurco fits in the lineup at this point, but honestly, right now I’d say as the 13th forward. Holland is familiar with him from their Detroit days together. At 750K for one year, this is a classic case of cheap, short term depth. I don’t expect Jurco to do much here and neither should you. He’s never eclipsed 10 goals or 20 points in a season, so never say never but don’t keep expectations high for this player. He’ll probably be a solid part-time bottom 6’er but not much more.

6. Josh Archibald

This is a pillar of Holland’s GM playbook – finding under the radar guys for cheap. Archibald is that guy. 121 games into his NHL career and having finally played more than 40 games in a season last year, playing 68 games and tallying 12 goals and 22 points at the tender age of 26.

This is an interesting pickup by Holland. He strikes me as a solid third liner with potential to move into the top six. Solid move and certainly better than whomever the third line center was playing with last year.

It’ll be interesting to see what JA can do this year. Either way, it’s a low-risk bet at $1 million for one year.

7. TBD – the Jesse Puljujarvi fiasco

Holland himself has publicly admitted he is still deciding what to do with Jesse Puljujarvi, whether that’s to trade him or sign him for next season. As an RFA, the Oilers will retain his rights even if he doesn’t re-up by the time the season starts, and let’s be honest it’s looking more and more like the Oilers won’t need this prima donna next season, especially with James Neal coming on the scene now.

There’s lots of blame to go around on how JP has been handled in his career but he hasn’t done himself any favors by acting entitled when he hasn’t earned anything, and allegedly refusing to go down to the AHL.

The Oilers hold all the cards here as they can easily do without JP next season. The player needs the organization more than the organization needs the player, so KH can afford to take his sweet time on this one.

JP’s only leverage is if someone wants to offer sheet him, and I can’t see another team wanting to pay that kind of price just for an underachieving drama queen with an attitude problem. I’m willing to bet the decision for JP is one of the top 3 items on his radar for the rest of the offseason.

Bottom line

If you expected the Oilers to be in on the big fish or to solve all their roster issues in one offseason, sadly, that did not happen. We had about as much success as could be expected out of free agency this offseason – and there’s still more of it to go.

Holland’s not done by a long shot, I guarantee you.

Are we a playoff team next year?

Tough to say. At absolute worst, we move closer to being a playoff team. But, I could maybe see the Oilers grabbing one of the wildcard spots next season if things go their way. However, I’m curbing my enthusiasm and not seeing that as a foregone conclusion.

As always, the proof is in the pudding.