Why is what Bill Daly said perfect news for the Edmonton Oilers?

In an interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek from European Media Day on Wednesday, Bill Daly said he thinks the salary cap may be going up earlier than expected. This is excellent news for the NHL and in particular the Edmonton Oilers.

"“I’ve seen some preliminary estimates recently which would make me more optimistic on the cap gong up sooner whether that’s in two seasons or three seasons, I think it’s more likely than not two seasons rather than three,”Bill Daly"

If this does come true then there could be a large cap increase in the year 2023-2024. This is going to help every team in the NHL, but I think the Edmonton Oilers will have the most to gain from this.

In the summer following the 2023-2024 the Edmonton Oilers can sign Leon Draisaitl to a contract extension. Draisaitl is going to be getting a raise from what he is currently getting and it is likely going to be a fairly large raise as well.

This is why the fact that the cap is going up at that time is perfect for the Edmonton Oilers. Between now and then there is also not many core players that will need to sign. Before then Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, Bouchard, Broberg and Skinner will be RFA’s. As for the UFA’s there isn’t many big names.

Foegele would be the biggest one. He will be joined by Ryan, Janmark, Shore and Koekkoek. These players will not cost much too either re-sign or to replace. This also doesn’t include the Lucic and Sekera dead cap space the Edmonton Oilers are carrying.

At the time of the signings, Holland’s long term deal may have looked bad. Now that the cap is going significantly up right in the middle of most of the contract, I now think it looks genius. All that extra cap space is hopefully going to go to Draisaitl that year and McDavid the next.

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There is always the chance that Draisaitl may not want stay an Edmonton Oilers player, but if he moves on it will not be because the Edmonton Oilers didn’t have the cap space. Getting Draisaitl to stay is going to be in my opinion a big factor in Connor McDavid wanting to stay in Edmonton.

Signing Darnell Nurse long term was step one, and Draisaitl will be step two in the main goal for the Edmonton Oilers. That main goal being keeping McDavid an Oiler for his whole career. This is why getting that cap space boost when it is expected is perfect timing.