Recapping The Last Few Days Of Free The NHL Free Agency

The Oilers treated day one of free agency basically as you would expect.

It was well known that they didn’t have a lot of cap space so Holland made one major move that could be accomplished due to the contract being mostly bonus money and other than that it was just nibbling around the edges.  Let’s go through all the moves made now.

R Center Lane Pederson – Two years, $1.55 million ($775,000 per)

Pederson is a veteran of 71 NHL games over the past three seasons with Arizona, San Jose, and last season split between Vancouver and Columbus plus the farm teams of both clubs.

He’s a bit of a journeyman but if I had to guess I’d say Holland sees Pederson as one of the top prospects for fourth line center, the others being Dylan Holloway or Derek Ryan. One thing Pederson really has going for him – his age.

Pederson turns 26 in August so he’s right in his PPY. I’m assuming Holland’s pro scouts took a look at this player and thought he might be ready for full time NHL work.

We’ll see if it works out or not. If it doesn’t, we can always put him on waivers and bury his entire cap hit in the minors.

RW Connor Brown – One year, $775,000 base salary, $3.225 million in performance and games played bonuses

And now we get to the marquee signing of the day – Connor Brown. Brown had been linked in trade or free agency rumours to the Oilers for years now, but the Oilers could never afford the luxury of a guy making $3 million a year likely playing in their bottom six. Connor Mcdavid helped out with the recruitment process, which can’t have been that hard seeing as how the two players are best friends and former teammates from their junior days with the Erie Otters.

The Oilers appear to be looking to Brown for two things – to occupy the vacuum of one of the RW roster spots that came vacant when Kailer Yamamoto was traded to the Wings for nothing, and keep the seat warm for one of the prospects who are rumoured to be playing for the Oilers next year and taking that spot at a low cap hit two seasons from now – specifically front runner Raphael Lavoie, who was one of the top scorers for Bakersfield last season putting up 25 goals and 45 points in 61 games last season. However, his teammate Xavier Bourgault has been making waves in Bakersfield despite only one season of pro hockey under his belt to Lavoie’s three and will definitely be in training camp competition.

But, who knows? Maybe neither guy grabs the spot and the Oilers instead re-sign Brown to a longer-term contract.

The Achilles heel with Brown is that even after almost 500 NHL games he’s never been able to grab a top-six forward spot permanently. He’s cracked the 20-goal mark while playing for both Toronto and Ottawa but regressed the season after in both instances, once to 14 goals and once to 10 goals.

But playing in Toronto and Ottawa Brown has never had a top-six forward group playing around him like the Oilers have right now. It’s been called the best in the league by some and the names are all familiar to us in fact all of the other five players have been known to give the opposition fits at times, not the least of which is that our top six forward corps are anchored by the two best players in the world, Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl.

He’s never played with a top-six forward group this good and this deep before, which is why IMO he’ll stay healthier and get back to the 20-goal mark once more. It’s a great opportunity for him to revitalize his career if he plays his cards right. Maybe even win a cup if everything falls into place.

We know that he and Mcdavid formed a great duo in junior, will that translate to the NHL? On paper at least, yes. He should be part of a formidable first line of Hyman-Mcdavid-Brown.

The beauty of this deal is that if Brown hits his performance bonuses none of the money counts against this year’s cap unless the Oilers have cap space left over at the end of the season. There are only three instances in which bonus money can be paid – an ELC, a +35 contract, or the year after a season in which the player was out most of the year with an injury, which is the case with Brown.

Any of Brown’s performance cap space that gets paid out this season won’t count towards next season, so either way the Oilers win from a cap space perspective. The only part of Brown’s contract that counts 100% towards this season is his NHL minimum base salary.

Between the sale that Connor Mcdavid made to Brown and the fact that he wants to win a Stanley Cup, he chose the Oilers over other teams that gave him more lucrative offers, because he wants a chance to win and he knows his best chance is here.

C/LW/RW Drake Caggiula – Two year, two-way contract of $1.55 million in the NHL ($775,000 per)

Caggiula is coming back to the Oilers organization for the first time since previous GM Peter Chiarelli stupidly traded Caggiula to Chicago for a nobody named Robin Norell and physical blueliner Brandon Manning, a terrible hockey player and a terrible human being.

Since a career-best 13-7-20 with the Oilers in the 2017-18 season, Caggiula has been spinning his wheels as his career hasn’t really taken off, which explains why he spent the majority of last season playing on Pittsburgh’s farm team, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

Caggiula is in what I’d call the second tier of players currently vying for the fourth-line center spot. While there are stronger candidates for the position, Caggiula just might surprise everyone and win the spot in training camp – hey, you never know, stranger things have happened.

If he gets beaten out for the fourth-line center spot as expected, he’ll probably be the first-line center for Bakersfield, considering the fact that he put up 22-31-53 in 65 games last season with WBS. The Condors need some help with scoring, considering that Lavoie was their only 20-goal scorer last season and they were the lowest-scoring of all the playoff teams in the AHL – in fact, they only scored two goals the entire playoffs last season – ouch.

Caggiula should give the farm a shot in the arm unless he fills the void at fourth line C here in Edmonton.  Good injury call-up depth otherwise.

LD Ben Gleason – Two-year, two-way contract for the first season, one-way contract for the second season, $1.55 million NHL salary ($775,000 per)

Basically depth for the farm, Gleason is coming to the organization as another AHL veteran. He had one four-game cup of coffee with the Dallas Stars in 2018-19 but other than that he’s spent his entire career until now with their farm team, the Texas Stars.

What I can’t figure out is why Holland gave him a one-way contract for the second season of his contract. What merit is he basing this on? Gleason’s point totals in Texas went down from 44 to 33 points season over season, in only two fewer games, so it’s not like he’s a hotshot on the way up.

No matter, it’s not like Gleason will be in demand if he as expected spends the entire season in Bakersfield that second year, so he’ll probably pass through waivers if he goes back down at that time.

As the Condors are devoid of blueliners with experience after Cam Dineen, they’re bringing in Gleason to help fill the void.

LD Noel Hoefenmayer – One year, two-way contract for $845,000 in the NHL

More vacuum filling for the farm, this is a great under-the-radar pickup for Holland as this might be a player who has an NHL shot. Drafted in the fourth round by Arizona in 2017, Hoefenmayer has been developing slowly, almost glacially, to be honest. But he definitely has potential and his career is on the upswing. He wrapped up his junior career with the Ottawa 67s going 26-56-82 with 37 PIMs and a whopping +52.  Good start.

However, he has spent his pro career bouncing around between the AHL and ECHL thus far. It’s worth noting, however, that this past season he took a step forward, going 11-27-38 in 65 games with the Toronto Marlies, along with a -2 and 114 PIMs.

Who wants the Blueliner equivalent of a power forward? I certainly would. Why the Marlies didn’t move to immediately re-sign this guy I’ll never know.

That being said, the Marlies’ loss is the Condors’ gain. It’s also worth noting two things:  1)  He’s an ex-Wichita Thunder, so the Oilers did have him in their organization previously (their ECHL affiliate has since changed to the Fort Wayne Komets but it previously was the Wichita Thunder) and 2) He’s turning 25 in January, and you know what that means…..bring on the PPY.

Time is still on Mr. Hoefenmayer’s side…..for now. But only he will determine whether those PPY means full-time NHLer, AHL bubble player, or AHL veteran. Any or all of those labels are possible, only time will be able to tell us which one applies to young Noel here.