Zack Kassian is traded on draft day and more

We all knew Keith and Smith were considering retirement but expected Keith would lace ’em up for one more season before retiring.

However, Keith surprised everyone by opting to retire. With this move the Oilers automatically gain yet another $5.5 million in cap space, while Chicago incurs a cap recapture penalty on their books of $5,538,462 for next season and $1,938,456 two seasons from now. I’m not sure what the point of the cap recapture penalty is in the CBA – I have a feeling Hawks GM Kyle Davidson will be wanting it gone at the next GM meetings. Oh well, at least the Oilers came out on top in this deal.

I guess I can’t blame Keith for retiring – there was nothing left for him to accomplish at the NHL level, having won Stanley Cups, Norris trophies, and a Conn Smythe trophy. I could see how he would have trouble finding motivation to come back for next season.

Still, I actually looked forward to seeing what Keith could do in the lineup next season. Yes he was a little overpaid at $5.5 million, but he wasn’t radically overpaid. Keith still put up 1-20-21 with a +15 in the regular season, while contributing 1-4-5 with a questionable -4 in 16 playoff games. His biggest contribution to the Oilers, however, would be away from the ice. Keith reportedly helped the team as a calming presence in the locker room, especially when they were at their biggest points of adversity in the first and second rounds – not to mention the influence he had on Evan Bouchard, his defensive partner for the last half of the season or so. As a player Keith pretty much met my expectations. I expected him to come here, put up 20 points, and be a leader in the dressing room, which is exactly what he did.

Well, enjoy retirement Duncan, you deserve it.

Between Zack Kassian being traded, Keith’s retirement, and what we’ve been hearing is going to happen to Mike Smith next season the Oilers have just officially opened up $8.7 million in cap space in two days officially – plus it seems only a matter of days before Mike Smith’s situation bumps that to $10.9 million.

This creates a bit of a snowball effect now on the Oilers. They’re not under nearly as much of a cap crunch for next season so they’ll be able to keep Evander Kane that much more, not to mention there’s now a lot less urgency to trade Tyson Barrie – although it’s still not smart cap usage to pay a guy $4.5 million to play on your third pairing, so if I’m Holland I still consider that – except now you’re dealing from a position of strength and can ask for more in trade.

It also means that Oscar Klefbom’s $4.167 million of LTIR cap space isn’t needed nearly as much, and we could see Holland deal it for a really good haul to a team hurting for cap space – and there’s a lot of those in the NHL right now. Vegas, Tampa Bay, Philly, Florida, Minnesota, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, and San Jose are all hurting for cap space right now.

If Holland plays his cards right, he could get a top notch prospect and a first round pick out of a team with no strings attached if he deals it. If I’m him I’ve already sent the email to these teams to start the bidding war.

That’s a lot of trade partners.

As for who could replace Keith? Well, Holland has a lot of options here. Internally he could re-sign Brett Kulak and play him in that spot, although there’s risk in expecting a guy who’s been a third pairing guy his entire career to just magically play more minutes against tougher opposition in the second pairing. Kulak could probably handle it, though – he did spot duty on the top pairing last season during the litany of injuries and COVID outages and didn’t look out of place.

Another option is instead of having Broberg and Niemelainen duke it out for the third pairing spot on the left side you could pencil in Broberg in Keith’s old spot and give Niemelainen the third pairing spot. There’s of course obvious risk in penciling in two raw rookies to play as regulars – not sure how Woodcroft or Holland would feel about this, but it’s a possibility.

Those are simply the internal options. Free agency doesn’t have a lot to offer at the position, however Nikita Zadorov, Ben Chiarot, and Rasmus Sandin are all intriguing free agents (Toronto will probably want to keep Sandin so that last one may be a pipe dream). There are also second tier guys that you might be able to get cheap, like Danney Dekeyser – who Holland would be familiar with from his Detroit days – Wil Butcher, or glassman Ryan Murray if you feel like taking a huge risk on an oft-injured guy. Most of the list, though, are either nobodies, guys too old to have an impact on the ice anymore, or bottom pairing types.

The trade route may be the most prudent way to go. I’m thinking we could dangle Oscar Kelfbom’s LTIR or Jesse Puljujarvi as the centerpiece of any trade – or if he uses the former as the centerpiece, he could trade that for another team’s first rounder next year and use that to trade for a Keith replacement.

This had to be a surprise to everyone, though. It’ll be interesting to see how Holland handles it.