NHL insider thinks Oilers cap situation could hinder their search for a new goalie

The one thing fans of the Edmonton Oilers have been clamoring management to act on is the situation between the pipes. The team has had struggles within their crease going back a couple seasons now and this year has started out largely in the same manner.

Fortunately, reading the tea leaves, multiple NHL insiders have thrown out the idea that the Oilers goaltenders are on thin ice (no pun intended). Some even stating that the team will give them until the 2026 NHL trade deadline to sort things out.

This has caused mass speculation on potential targets, with one of them being acquired by general manager Stan Bowman, trading for goaltender Connor Ingram from the Utah Mammoth for future considerations.

But with his NHL future and potential impact in question, if the Oilers hope to make another deep run into the playoffs, they will likely need to set their sights on a bigger target. Replacing Stuart Skinner and/or Calvin Pickard.

This is the conclusion NHL insider David Pagnotta came to recently, speaking on Sportsnet Today he said "They don't have the cap space now for a quick fix". Adding "if they do make a goalie change and Skinner's the guy out, it's $2.6 million, if you want an impact goalie you're probably looking at $5 million plus,"

Oilers cap situation

Looking deeper at the Oilers cap situation, Pagnotta is right, the club lacks much in terms of salary cap wiggle room. When Zach Hyman and Kasperi Kapanen return from their stays on long term injured reserve, running even a fairly bare bones roster puts the team at roughly league minimum salary cap available ($775,000).

This would be hard to make many moves but the team still has trade options, possibly moving on from a player like Kapanen, Mattias Janmark, David Tomasek, Jack Roslovic, or Ty Emberson. As sending any of these players down will result in a slight cap penalty as the current NHL buried cap hit limit is $1.15 million and all of these players carry cap hits above that.

This is not the end of discussion for the Oilers however, they could still get a third-party team to retain salary this season. This could potentially lower a player's salary by 75 percent of it's current amount, allowing the club to fit most salary cap hits onto their payroll. This is also a way the Oilers could fit a big upgrade in goal while not dumping salary cap in one of their solid depth pieces.

The one caveat to that being the potential cost of acquiring that player increasing. Depending on the amount retained and over the period of time, teams could charge a premium for doing that favour, potentially driving up the cost they would have to pay.

Still, if the Oilers are serious, they may not have a choice but to make a deal for a new goalie given their current tandem and their struggles to perform so far this season.

All salary cap information via Puckpedia.com