After losing to a good Colorado Avalanche team on Monday the Edmonton Oilers season is over. Right now you may feel sad and upset because of the sweep to the Avs, but the Edmonton Oilers finished as one of the top four teams in the NHL.
It is now time for this team to gear up for another run next season. Next season this team will want to improve on how they finished this season. That will be no easy task. With all the players on expiring contracts and players need to be brought in to fill in empty spots.
Edmonton Oilers Offseason
Evander Kane who was here on a sweetheart deal will need to be replaced or re-signed. This will not be a cheap addition. This will cause some problems for the Edmonton Oilers as there isn’t a lot of cap space to spare as it is.
In order for everything to work cap wise moving forward I think that there will be some players traded in order to make things work. Making a trade for a higher cost players for a cheaper player is the easiest way for a GM to save on cap space.
Buying a player out is another option. The problem with a buyout is you are just pushing your problems down the road. You may save on cap space in that current year, but moving forward it actually adds cap to your team.
An example is the Edmonton Oilers bought out Andrej Sekera several years ago. The contract was set to expire in 2021, but they still have one more year of $1.5 million of dead cap space due to this. It originally saved them 4 million a year, but now it is wasting cap space.