Recapping free agency so far

Edmonton Oilers re-sign Brett Kulak to a four year, $11 million contract ($2.75 million per)

Kulak was the feel-good story of the trade deadline. Local boy comes home to Edmonton at the trade deadline for a somewhat overpaid haul to bring veteran leadership and depth to the third pairing of the D corps. Having rescued him from the doldrums of a lottery pick team in Montreal, Kulak would go on to provide what was advertised and then some – 18 games, 2-6-8 and a sparkling +6.

When you tie in his stats with the Habs, Kulak finished the season 5-16-21 in 74 games. He continued this play in the postseason, putting up 0-5-5 in 16 games. Not bad for a guy whose game was said to be as a stay at home defensive blueliner.

Now Ken Holland has given Kulak a substantial raise and expected him to take over for the retired Duncan Keith on the left side of the second pairing – but good news, he’s the only NHL regular on the Oilers roster who can play both sides on D.

Can Kulak take on more responsibility? Hmm….

Risk factor – moderate

Kulak showed his ability so he’s a bonafide NHL player – the only question is how much of one is he? There is a little bit of a risk with this signing because Kulak has never regularly played the minutes or competition in the top four in his career – thus far he’s always been a bottom pairing D. A very good one, mind you, but a bottom pairing D.

Not every NHL blueliner can make this jump – remember we tried it with Matt Benning back when he was an Oiler and it failed. He remains a third pairing D in his career today.

Will Kulak falter like Benning? That’s the million dollar question with him – and if he does falter now you’re paying a guy $2.75 million to play with a guy who’s making $4.5 million on the other side. That’s a heck of an expensive bottom pairing, and a terrible use of cap space.

But the signs at this point show history in fact will NOT repeat itself and Kulak will succeed as the successor to Duncan Keith (see what I did there?). After all, take a look at Kulak’s game by game ice time last season. One commonality between his time in Montreal and his time here in Edmonton is that the coaches of both teams trusted Kulak with games here and there with 20 minutes of ice time plus – and he didn’t crack under the pressure. I didn’t see him play those games as a Hab but I did see him play some of those games as an Oiler – and I saw a guy who played spot duty in the top pairing and didn’t look out of place. NHL coaches don’t play guys 20 minutes a game unless they know for a fact they can handle it – because the NHL is a harsh mistress that chews up and spits out the guys who don’t belong. If he can handle that he should be able to handle the second pairing.

This is why I firmly believe Kulak will, in fact, turn out to be the younger and cheaper version of Duncan Keith next season. If he can score 20 points playing for two teams last season, I firmly believe he can put up the same amount of offence playing with the Oilers full time next season. It also helps that he’s already played with his partner on the right side Evan Bouchard before so the two are familiar with each other. Kulak will be the perfect stay at home yin to Bouchard’s puck moving yang – while at the same time mopping up Bouchard’s leftovers to produce some complementary offence.

To me, that’s a good solid use of $2.75 million on an NHL roster per year.

My overall take – I approve. I’m optimistic and bullish on Kulak going forward – especially in pairing him with Evan Bouchard.