Zack Kassian is traded on draft day and more

The last remaining bad contract from the Oilers was jettisoned on draft day when the Edmonton Oilers swung a deal with Arizona, for the first time since 2017 when they sent Mitch Moroz to Arizona for Henrik Samuelsson.

I always had a feeling Kassian would be moved to Arizona, simply in a different way. Holland was able to swing a trade to Arizona where the Oilers swapped first round picks with Arizona and moved down to the 32nd pick from the 29th pick (the 32nd pick was actually Colorado’s which Arizona had acquired when they moved Darcy Kuemper to the Avs last trade deadline), then sent Kassian along with a 2025 second round pick and a 2024 third round pick along with Kassian to Arizona.

At first blush this seems like a bit of a steep price to pay for moving Kassian’s contract, but considering other teams have sent Arizona first round picks to get take on bad contracts the Oilers got off easy here. It’s also worth noting this negotiation has Holland’s style of trade written all over it – he paid a steep price but mitigated it somewhat by making the picks future picks rather than anything in this draft (outside of the obvious swap of first rounders) or next year.

The Oilers then selected Reid Schaefer at 32, a power forward with size from Spruce Grove who’s ecstatic to be a future Edmonton Oiler if he can cut the mustard in future training camps.

This trade accomplished a big goal of Holland to free up cap space. Kassian was taking space in the lineup from more deserving players simply due to his cap hit, and he seems to have been infected with Dustin Penner syndrome, being invisible on the ice for long stretches of the season and the playoffs. Kassian did OK in the regular season, putting up 6-13-19 in 58 games with a +2. However, his performance took a bit of a nosedive in the playoffs. His boxcars were OK as he went 2-2-4 in 16 games, However his +/- dipped to a -2.

Fortunately in Arizona he won’t have to worry about his performance dipping in the playoffs as Arizona won’t sniff the playoffs as a franchise for quite some time. Kassian as a player was seemingly cooked as he’s lost a stride in recent years, and as a result his offence has dried up as he’s played the last couple of seasons on the fourth line. Even his trademark physical play has gone invisible for large stretches of time. Kassian better revive his career in Arizona because once the two years remaining on his deal are up no one will take him on, even at typical fourth liner rates. He may be forced to go play pro hockey in the British hockey league.

Why the British league? The British league loves it’s enforcers and their league is basically based around physical play. You’ll make peanuts for money but it’s a lot of fun for guys like Kassian who love the rough stuff. Other former NHL players have already been there, done that. Most of the European leagues play a finesse style of hockey, but not the Brits.

Anyway, with this move Holland has now freed up $3.2 million in cap space, which he sorely needed especially if he still wants to bring back Evander Kane, which it seems like he does.

He can sign a litany of guys to take Kassian’s spot in the lineup for cheap. I wouldn’t even want to speculate at this point as there’s simply too many candidates to consider.

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.