Recapping free agency so far

I included these two together as well, to save time, because so much ink has been spilled already about these two what new takes is there on them?

Edmonton Oilers re-sign the 24 year old RW Bison King to a one year, $3 million contract

This is an overpayment, but what are you going to do when you’re under the gun of an arbitration hearing?  This is par for the course for this player.

Jesse Puljujarvi is an enigma of an NHL player. A first round pick was spent on him in 2016 at fourth overall but he has underperformed his draft position thus far. That being said, he set a career high in points last season with 36 points so he may be about the turn a corner.

But the Edmonton Oilers will have to face this same situation next offseason as well if they don’t trade him, so all they did was kick the can down a season.

They also have a looming cap shortage, especially if the rumours that Holland still wants to add a couple of depth pieces to the roster are true.

Also, for some odd reason Puljujarvi has played 259 games over five seasons and still hasn’t learned that NHL ice time is earned, not freely given. He spent the last half of the season mostly on the third line and then whined to his agent about the line he was playing on. Maybe if he finished more of the chances he had on net he would be.

His scoring skills have so far left a lot to be desired, but he’s a great defensive player and knows how to use his size so even in his current state he can still bring something to the Edmonton Oilers.

Holland was able to avoid arbitration with the player, but now he’s $1.5 million or so overpaid and he has to figure out what to do with him. He remains a top trade chip for the Edmonton Oilers since the rumour goes the only reason they signed him was so they could trade him. This is the biggest question of the offseason, so we’ll see what happens.

Edmonton Oilers re-sign 23 year old C/RW Kailer Yamamoto to a two year, $6.2 million contract ($3.1 million per)

The man in the picture above got a hearty raise for the same reason the Bison King did – a looming date with arbitration.

At least he’s not too overpaid. I would’ve preferred somewhere along the $2.5 million range, but somehow I doubt that would’ve gotten the deal done.

Yamamoto cracked the 20 goal mark and the 40 point mark (41 points) last season, both career highs. He also had by far his most productive post season, with 2-5-7 in 14 games. He previously only had a single assist in his first eight postseason games. He’s also well known for playing much more physical than a 5’8″ 153 lb player would normally be playing at.

A banner season for Mighty Mouse, the question now is can he build on it and do it again? Or improve on it?

If it came down to keeping the Bison King or Mighty Mouse, I’d keep Mighty Mouse and it’s not even a contest. He’s the more proven player and has a better attitude.

This one was done just three days ago at the time of this writing.