Last Wednesday marked the opening of NHL Free Agency. As soon as the flood gates opened, we saw several teams sign their coveted players. Again, we witnessed a ton of money floated around in order for teams to entice the players to play for their cities, the Edmonton Oilers included.
Year after year, we see these massive transactions, either in dollar values or length of the contracts, or both. Most often, even as we love the players that our team is signing, we question what they are thinking on why they give this player that much money? Sometimes it works out for both players and teams, but as we see time and time again, it holds the team captive for the duration of the contract.
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The Edmonton Oilers Aren’t Immune To Mistakes
In the process of looking back through these contracts signed throughout free agency, we will dig into the past at some of the worst contracts signed by the Edmonton Oilers. Since the turn of the 21st century, Edmonton has not been a destination city for players. The harsh Edmonton weather, accompanied by player taxes makes it hard for the team to land the players they want through free agency.
The Oilers often, just like most Canadian teams, have to offer bigger money and longer contracts just to be able to compete with other teams. Due to salary cap restrictions, that philosophy does not always result in a good way for the team. It hinders them to be able to make additions to improve the team for the next few seasons.
As much as we like seeing the Edmonton Oilers sign star players to play for our city, we hate watching them fail repeatedly. Even though these players that the Oilers signed through free agency might have produced for them on the ice at some point throughout their contract, we also see how heavily they impacted the team negatively.