Oilers: The team needs more contracts like this one player
By Jim Lynch
The Edmonton Oilers are doing their best to put a championship team on the ice this coming season. In order to secure the best possible roster, the team needs to make sure they are not tossing too much money around for players that might not need it.
The Edmonton Oilers need to get creative with contracts to win a championship. They need more deals like Warren Foegele’s.
After getting traded to Edmonton from Carolina, Warren Foegele signed a three-year 2.75 million dollar contract with the team. The 25-year-old is the perfect depth addition to the third line and this move was something the team needed to make.
Edmonton added a skilled forward to their bottom six and gave him a contract that would keep him here for a while. The team has deals like Kassian and Hyman’s on the books for the foreseeable future, but it is the 25-year-old and younger players that this team needs to add. Every team has star players, it is the group of guys that teams put around their stars that separate championship teams from first-round exits.
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So, in the future, the team will have to work out extensions for Puljujarvi, McLeod, and Yamamoto. Hopefully, they will be willing to signed three-year deals at around 2 million or under. McLeod shouldn’t really be an issue getting him for the right dollar amount, it is more so Puljujariv and Yamamoto that might be harder due to the fact that they both have spent a lot of time in the top six.
Similar to how Kassian got too much money after spending time with McDavid, I do not want to see the other guys on this team get rewarded for someone else’s success. With a Darnell Nurse extension on the books for the coming seasons at a hefty 9.25 million dollar price, finding a way to get other players under contract at less money needs to be a priority.
Pretty soon Edmonton should become a destination like Tampa Bay that players want to go to. The hope to win a championship with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl might be enough to get some players to sign for a bit less than expected.
None of this is anything the team needs to worry about right now. Outside of the Yamamoto contract and maybe adding a goalie the Oilers are probably done making moves for the offseason. So it is next season that hopefully, the team can do their best at adding players for the right price.