The Edmonton Oilers made it official on Tuesday buying out James Neal for the remainder of his contract. While this move was not surprising, it is nice to finally have it done so the team can move on.
Free agency starts tomorrow, and the Edmonton Oilers are going to be active.
James Neal’s contract was worth 5.75 million for the next two seasons, in buying it out the team only needs to pay 1.9 against the cap for the next four seasons. Sure, it stinks that this contract won’t be gone until 2025, but at least now they save over three million in cap space to use elsewhere for the next two seasons.
Edmonton is going to be busy during the coming weeks. They have been linked with more than a few players and will be looking to get a few more deals done by the time the season begins.
This decision to buy out James Neal clears up some space, maybe to go out and acquire a Stanley Cup Champion like Blake Coleman for example. I wouldn’t mind seeing the team use that three million to add a few nice pieces into the bottom six.
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James Neal will probably find a landing spot in some market, but it won’t be Edmonton. Neal will now be signing a cheaper deal elsewhere, similar to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter a few other victims to buyouts during the past few weeks.
According to CapFriendly, Edmonton has a little over 12 million in cap space to work with right now. That is enough to go out and add a few more pieces to their lineup, even if they do use a lot of it on Zach Hyman.
A lot of teams have been active the last few hours, with Chicago acquiring Marc-Andre Fleury and Washington extending their captain Alex Ovechkin for a few more seasons. It will be interesting to see how buys tomorrow is when free agency starts officially. Here is to a fun couple of days to come!