The majority of the Edmonton Oilers roster is under contract for a few seasons, not just one. Today I want to look at the players that are all playing for contracts this coming season.
There are some pretty big players on the list that need contracts for the Edmonton Oilers.
I almost did not believe it when I saw this, but according to CapFriendly, the Edmonton Oilers are projected to have just 6.9 million dollars in cap space next offseason. That is not a lot of space to work with, especially when we look at the list of players that need contracts.
So here is the list of Oilers:
Kyle Turris
Josh Archibald
Jesse Puljujarvi
Ryan McLeod
Brendan Perlini
Kris Russell
William Lagesson
Mikko Koskinen
Alex Stalock
Obviously, the team will be saying goodbye to some of these players. They need to focus on Puljujarvi and McLeod first and foremost. Getting those to players under contract is invaluable to the team’s depth. Hopefully, both will agree to extensions at around two million or less. McLeod probably won’t need more than a million and Puljujarvi might be able to ask for a bit more depending on how this season goes.
Considering we are still waiting to see on the price of Kailer Yamamoto’s extension, I think it is safe to say the deal for Puljujarvi might be something that is going to take some time to work out.
I really cannot believe the team has this little cap space for the next offseason. I guess that is what happens when the franchise has almost 3.5 million in bought-out contracts and also 3.2 million tied up in Zack Kassian.
The Edmonton Oilers are going to have their work cut out for them when it comes to figuring out who stays and who goes on this team. One would expect that a guy like Josh Archibald will probably be let go and probably also Kyle Turris. The team needs to focus on their young guys more so than some of those veteran players.
Any type of deal this team makes this season will definitely have to be for players that can help them on expiring deals. The Oilers do not have the cap space to take on more money for the next couple of years to come.