As most Oilers fans are well aware of by now, Adam Larsson was signed as a free agent by the Seattle Kraken and thus was Edmonton’s selection in the expansion draft.
A lot of fans are blaming Holland for the move, but it was very much a decision by Larsson to move – and it was unrelated to money, as the Oilers were believed to have offered the same or more money to Larsson as Seattle signed him for. Holland offered Larsson three different contracts, so he had plenty of options to return to the Oilers. He ended up signing with Seattle the day before the expansion draft.
Larsson had the opportunity to test free agency and he did. I wasn’t expecting to lose him to Seattle personally – I mean what player in his right mind would sign with an expansion team? Or so I thought. Turns out quite a few guys would, despite the high possibility of being on a bad team. Didn’t see that coming.
Zack Kassian
So many people – myself included – were wondering why Kassian was protected in the draft. I mean, he’s not the worst contract on the roster but probably the third-worst. This was a good way to cut him loose. However, rumor has it that there are teams interested in trading for Kassian. I guess teams want to get tougher, and despite the off-season, he had last year quite a few teams were interested in taking a flyer on him.
Can’t blame Holland for wanted to avoid risking losing a trade chip for nothing. That would be bad asset management otherwise.
That trade hasn’t happened yet, but I would expect it to happen later on in the offseason.
What would we get back for him? I wouldn’t expect a blockbuster trade, but I would expect a middling prospect or a third to fifth-round pick back. Maybe as high as a second-rounder if Holland can pit some of his colleagues against each other. With any luck, we won’t have to retain any salary in the transaction.
Or, he could be a centerpiece in trying to jettison Mikko Koskinen from the roster – then we can get $7.7 million off the books. This will be interesting to watch as the offseason goes on.
Dylan Wells trade
Just before the expansion draft, the Oilers traded goalie Dylan Wells to Carolina for future considerations. I was assuming the future considerations would be the negotiation rights to Dougie Hamilton until Holland said he wasn’t going big game hunting in free agency.
I was very much surprised by this move, seeing as how Wells has done absolutely nothing throughout his career other than being an ECHL bubble player. Seriously, check out his numbers – he’s spent his entire career being shuttled between the AHL and the ECHL. We were lucky to get anything at all for him, as I was expecting him to be a free agent with no takers.
What was even more of a surprise, though, was Carolina actually qualified him as an RFA. I can only conclude they want to take a flyer on him and perhaps add to their farm team depth, I mean otherwise what was the point?