Oilers – the TO rescue 911 crew

It’s amazing what a difference a couple of decades can make in the history of an NHL franchise the Edmonton Oilers are a prime example of this.

The ’94 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers were a team that played in a pre-salary cap NHL era that was one of only six teams that were actually rich enough to pay the biggest stars.

In the early 90s the Oilers were a cash poor team run by an owner whose business empire was crumbling around him, even facing criminal charges here before he bolted for the US.

The Rangers routinely took advantage of teams like us at that time. Their Cup winning team back then was largely composed of ex-Oilers whom Edmonton could no longer afford to keep. Peter Pocklington, due to his own questionable business ethics back in the day, was forced to dismantle the Oilers dynasty team for financial reasons. The trades, in the short term at least (in the long run we made out pretty good on that Craig Mactavish for Doug Weight trade) were incredibly tilted towards the Rangers as they sent us picks and prospects in exchange for their player of choice and usually cash too (something that is now illegal in today’s CBA).

The Oilers had no chance at competing for the cup and at that time were basically a glorified farm team for the six rich teams – a fate eventually shared by most of the league. We had the master of GMs at the helm at the time so we at least could still make the playoffs for part of the decade based on his trades (that was still at a time when the Oilers had a horrendous drafting record which certainly didn’t help). That ’94 Rangers team was littered with Ex-Oilers, with a smattering of Ex-Hawks and Ex-Blues thrown in. Very little of that roster was homegrown Rangers players.

The Ex-Oilers of that team were Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Jeff Beukeboom, Craig Mactavish, and Kevin Lowe. Among some of their best players.

I guess we should feel fortunate in one regard – the Oilers still made it out of that decade alive, unlike the Winnipeg Jets v 1.0 and the Quebec Nordiques, who still haven’t come back to the league but rumour persists that they’re in line for an expansion team, or possibly a destination for a team to move should Gary Bettman ever come to his senses about teams like the Arizona Coyotes.

But fast forward to today and now the tables have turned. For the first time in their existence, the Oilers have stable ownership in the form of drugstore magnate Daryl Katz, and this in combination with the salary cap means now the Oilers have the same pipeline of players here that the Rangers used to have with them – except now it’s with the Toronto Maple Leafs, rescuing their players from a fishbowl on steroids where media and bloggers alike routinely ignore reality and become overly critical of players for no good reason.

Ask Phil Kessel if he’ll ever go back there again as a member of the home team if you don’t believe me. Don’t hold your breath, let’s just put it that way. He eventually left for the greener pastures of Pittsburgh and became a cornerstone player who contributed heavily to winning back to back Cups in 2016 and 2017. I’m sure the Maple Laffs could’ve used him…..

The Leafs have the strangest cap use of any team in the NHL. They’re paying almost half of their salary cap to four forwards, and as a result have seen themselves up against the cap every year for a long time now, and have been forced to say goodbye to incredibly useful core or complementary pieces. GM Kyle Dubas has been forced to weave a lot of magic over the years to make sure the Maple Laffs stay cap compliant.

The Oilers have made out like bandits because of the Leafs cap issues, routinely plucking players from them in free agency where the players seem to rehab and rebound their careers and inevitably become better players. Without the glare of loud yet ignorant voices in Canada’s New York, these players contribute greatly to the Oilers, many of whom played key roles in the Oilers ascendance to the conference finals last season, while the Leafs themselves bowed out in the first round for the sixth year in a row. Pity the players who don the Maple Leaf and wilt under the pressure of insanity.

Let’s take a look and see who the Oilers have rescued from the Leafs in free agency now.

Tyson Barrie

In the covid-shortened season of 2020, the Oilers signed d-man Tyson Barrie away from the Maple Laffs, who had chewed him up and spit him out despite the fact Barrie had put up 39 points and was wilting under then-coach Mike Babcock’s system in toxic sludgehole Toronto.

Talk about being ungrateful. What makes this even more comical is the Maple Laffs had just traded for Barrie the season prior and sent out Nazem Kadri plus a prospect and a pick.

And now only two seasons later they have literally nothing to show for this trade. Bad asset management, anyone? No wonder he wasn’t keen to re-sign there…..you can’t make this stuff up. If you can hear Nelson going “HAW HAW” in the background, it’s well deserved.

Barrie was initially given a one year show-contract of $3.75 million for one year. He responded by leading the NHL in scoring amongst blueliners in the covid-shortened season of 2020-21 and forming a formidable puck moving duo with Darnell Nurse on the first pairing. Amazingly, he received exactly zero votes for the Norris trophy that year, which just goes to show you how incredibly ignorant the trophy voting system is. He followed that up with another 40 point season after re-upping with the Oilers at $4.5 million for three years, again at a bargain as appreciation for rescuing him from Toronto.

Although Barrie’s roster spot has been usurped first by Cody Ceci and then by Evan Bouchard, and he may be traded later on in the offseason, there’s no question he’s certainly rehabilitated his career here in Edmonton. Going forward, at worst he remains a fantastic trade chip, at best a great PP quarterback who can step up into the top six in case of injury.

Cody Ceci

It was the aftermath of the Seattle expansion draft and the Oilers had just lost a key piece of the D corps in Adam Larsson after Seattle signed him in free agency. Larsson’s father had died while visiting Larsson in Edmonton, so he felt he had a black cloud over him after his contract expired and needed a new chapter somewhere else. Hard to compete with circumstances like that.
Technically it was Pittsburgh who started the initial rehabilitation of Ceci’s career, but the Oilers put it on turbocharge. They offered him $3.25 million in free agency for four years, which Ceci signed. Ken Holland has looked like a genius with this signing – not only has Ceci performed his role as a stay at home guy, but he’s thrived in the role, to the point where he’s once again playing on the top pairing for the Oilers as the stay at home guy who laps up plenty of Darnell Nurse’s leftovers as not only did he provide fantastic defensive work, but he put up 28 points in the process, the most offence he’s produced in four years.
This contract now looks like a complete and total bargain considering the vital role Ceci plays to the corps. Thank goodness Toronto cast him aside and Pittsburgh didn’t have the space to re-sign him. The Oilers top pairing is now locked up for the next three seasons at least.

Zach Hyman

The Oilers then went out the same day they signed Ceci and signed Hyman, who became a cap casualty of the Leafs. Needing more depth in their top six, the Oilers signed Hyman to a seven year, $38.5 million contract which is $5.5 million per.

He probably could’ve signed for more elsewhere, but he took a discount to sign here because of the presence of the McDrai duo, both of which he would get plenty of ice time with.

He didn’t even come here with much fanfare, he paid his own dime to fly out to Edmonton and check out various neighbourhoods in the city.

Hyman has responded to his newfound contract by putting up career highs of 27 goals and 54 points with the Oilers last season, following that up by being an important part of the postseason as well, putting up 11 goals and 16 points in 16 games.

He’s fit like a glove here. Once the NHL’s cap situation opens up a bit more, maybe we can get another or two like him.

– Rumours persist right now that the Oilers are in on signing PK Subban as a free agent. The 33 year old will not get $9 million a year on his next contract but he would be a decent depth piece for his next team – and he still has some game as he put up 22 points in 77 games for the rebuilding Devils last year. Right now there’s no way they have the cap space for him even if signs for around $1-2 million. We might see some action on this if Holland dumps a salary or two, though. But there’s another question to ask about Subban, he’s primarily a PP quarterback with shoddy defensive skills.

Remind you of anyone currently on the roster? Of course, Tyson Barrie’s defensive play got better as he worked with Dave Manson last year, and maybe Subban could benefit in the same way. Would be nice to stack the depth on D with Subban, but I’m not sure this can happen.

– An American publication, The Hockey News, published a ridiculous article stating that just because Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk have left Calgary that means that Connor Mcdavid will also leave Edmonton once his contract is up. It’s complete nonsense, of course, in large part because unlike the Flames, the Oilers are actually making progress as a franchise. It’s worth noting that for every year he’s been an Oiler, the team around him has gotten progressively better, especially from 2020 on.

Why would he leave Edmonton when his contract is up when the team has spent years building the team around him and the drafting has become so much better? This is probably just an ignorant American trying to cook up a story during a slow news time.

– The AHL all star line of Ryan Mcleod centering Cooper Marody and Tyler Benson will officially now never materialize in the NHL. Cooper Marody signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Flyers, where as a rebuilding team he’ll have more of a chance to earn a spot than he would here, so I can’t blame him for leaving to another organization.

Benson’s career in the organization is hanging on by a thread here and unless he shows progress he’ll be shown the door from the organization soon too. Mcleod of course has become a full time NHLer and is the only one of the trio to do so. Pity, it would’ve been a great story to see what the three of these players would’ve been as a third or fourth line in the NHL if all three of them had earned spots.

– Speaking of former Oilers in free agency, Andreas Athanasiou has signed a one year contract with Chicago. He seemed like he did pretty good for LA, I wonder why they didn’t bring him back. In a huge surprise, Matt Benning was signed for four years by San Jose – $1.25 million per, but still. They must be so bad they offer guys like Benning term to sign with their team…..meanwhile anti-vaxxer extraordinaire Josh Archibald inked a one year contract with Pittsburgh.

He’ll never face the Oilers when they’re playing in Rogers Place because he can’t legally enter the country as an unvaxxed person anymore. He’s making the same money he was here, $900,000. Ethan Bear re-upped in Carolina, and he only put up 14 points for the Hurricanes last season so the Oilers didn’t really miss much from him.

– I feel so sorry for Jack Eichel in Vegas right now, as he may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Vegas looks to be on the decline now as they’ve been forced to jettison a lot of quality depth to stay cap compliant, having bet big on free agents and trades that have taken their depth for years now, most recently as they traded Max Pacioretty to the Canes for nothing.

Unless Vegas can stay healthy and improve, Eichel may have the dubious distinction of being the most talented player to never make the playoffs in the NHL. Not to mention Pacioretty had something to say about the culture in Vegas. Of course this will make it all the more easier for the Oilers to beat them when we play them. Once we know a little more about how rosters will look like, I’m going to give my predictions for how the division will play out.