This has certainly been one of the busiest starts to free agency that I can remember in Oilers history. The Oilers signed four free agents, plus bought out James Neal and made a trade that we were expecting a little bit, but still a somewhat of a surprise.
Let’s get to these moves now.
1. Oilers re-sign RD Tyson Barrie for three years at $13.5 million ($4.5 million per)
The Oilers actually kicked off free agency this morning by announcing the contract for Barrie. This is a prototypical Holland contract as the salary structure is as follows: Year 1 – $3.5 million. Year 2 – $4.5 million. Year 3 – $5.5 million.
This is a little more modest than what we’d expected Barrie to go for, who was expected to go for at least as high as $5.5 million. Could Barrie have made more on the open market and received more term?
Probably, but not until the Dougie Hamilton contract was done. Barrie enjoyed his time here last year – who wouldn’t, after all, when you lead the league in scoring amongst d-men and play a pivotal role on the #1 PP in the league? Once Adam Larsson wasn’t going to be on the team you knew the Oilers would circle back to Barrie.
Pros – This is a pretty good contract, actually. The term isn’t too long and the cap hit isn’t too high. Barrie said his first choice was always to come back here as he enjoyed his time here last season. He’s a known commodity, we know he fits in on the roster and that he has chemistry with Darnell Nurse.
Barrie finished the season +4, only the third time in his 10 NHL seasons that he’s been a + player. That must be a good omen moving forward. Pretty good for a guy who has a reputation of being bad defensively. One thing that was new to me, as well – Barrie was actually fourth on the team in blocked shots last year with 59.
As you would expect, he spends lots of time on the PP and almost none on the PK. For the record, if Barrie maintains the same offensive output he did last season (0.86 PPG) he’ll finish the season with 71 points. Drink that in. With those numbers, he might even crack the 20 goal mark.
Cons – Really, the only question surrounding Barrie is can he do it again? Was last season an outlying aberration or a new normal? All signs point to it being a new normal at least as long as he’s wearing an Oilers uniform, but we don’t know for sure until he plays the games. Also, he’s 30 and although it’s great the contract is only three seasons, he has been playing key minutes for three teams virtually his entire career.
There may be a question by year three if he suffers some collapse, although I’d say that risk looks minimal from here. If last season was an aberration then we have a problem, but the risk of that is minimal.