3 Moves the Edmonton Oilers can make to become cap compliant

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It's no secret that, as per PuckPedia, the Edmonton Oilers are over the cap right now. With the Ryan Mcleod trade the Oilers moved the one expendable forward they had, to bring them down from almost $2.5 million over the cap to now. However, they'll need to make one more move to get over the hump, and there's a few different ways they can do that. Let's go through those now:

1) Trade Cody Ceci - best play

Cody Ceci lost his roster spot to Philip Broberg in the Stanley Cup final. Broberg came in under high pressure circumstances and did a very admirable job, and Ceci's play stabilized against lesser competition. Ceci formed a chemistry-laden pairing with Darnell Nurse for much of his time in the copper and blue. They were the top pairing before being replaced partway through the season in that regard by Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. Then this pairing was banished to the second pairing, and while Nurse stayed in the second pairing, Ceci struggled more and was then demoted to the third pairing.

The duo of Nurse-Broberg seemed to revitalize Nurse and at the same time provided veteran cover for the somewhat still raw yet largely finished product Broberg. I suspect with the instant chemistry they developed we will see this duo enter the regular season next year as the second pairing, rather than the Oilers retaining Ceci and re-uniting the two pairing mates from years past. There are several reasons for this:

A) Putting Ceci on the third pairing creates a VERY expensive third pairing whose cap space is better spent elsewhere. From a hockey standpoint he and Brett Kulak may have formed a pretty solid bottom pairing. However, between the $3.25 million that Ceci is pulling down and the $2.75 million that Kulak is pulling down, that means going with this pairing will cost the Oilers $6 million next season, a rather steep price to pay for two bottom pairing blueliners. Logically at least one of them should go, and Ceci is the best choice to trade

B) Ceci is a right shot d-man, and these are rarer in the NHL these days since most blueliners shoot left. This means the Oilers will get more from trading Ceci than Kulak or any forward you'd think of on the roster - maybe even a second round pick if a team is desperate enough to get into a bidding war to improve their right side.

C) Ceci only has one more year on his contract. If it doesn't work out with his new team, they can easily just cut him loose without giving up any assets.

D) The Oilers just re-upped Troy Stecher on the first day of free agency for two years at barely over $1.5 million. If you read the tea leaves, that is a much better fit as a cap hit to patrol the bottom pairing than Ceci's $3.25 million. It also makes Ceci expendable, since his replacement is already on the roster. Prior to the trade last year, Stetcher was playing on the second pairing on a lousy Arizona Coyotes team and actually doing ... well, as well as you'd expect on a lousy Arizona Coyotes team. Obviously the Oilers have done their due diligence on his injury from last season and determined he's healthy enough to play next season. This is a much better use of cap space. In fact, for this pairing (Kulak-Stecher) you're only paying $3.5375 million, almost half of what you're paying for Kulak-Ceci.

E) With the emergence of Broberg (and Bouchard less recently), the re-upping of Stetcher and the signing of Josh Brown, there is nowhere for Ceci to play on the roster next season. He has officially run out of runway, so it's best we ship him off and give him a fresh start elsewhere. A rebuilding team like San Jose might be a great destination for Ceci as a team that would take a flyer on him as a top four d-man, where expectations are lower and depth is much worse - notwithstanding trading within the division and what not.

2) Trade Brett Kulak - next best play

At the end of the 2022-23 season, Kulak's contract was up, and he did such a great job that he was re-upped to both longer term and higher cash than his previous team-friendly deal. This was to compensate him for the expectation that he would play a bigger role for the team and play on the second pairing. (Remember this was still at a time when Nurse-Ceci were the top pairing for the Oilers). After some bumps in the road he adapted and although he was no world beater, he performed admirably in the role.

Then the Oilers went out and traded for Ekholm, subtracting Tyson Barrie from the roster and promoting Bouchard up to the top four of the defence corps on the other side. Naturally you're not going to trade a haul for one of the best and most defensively underrated blueliners in the league and play him on the bottom pairing. And with Ekholm and Bouchard instantly clicking together as a pairing, that bumped Kulak back down to the bottom pairing, albeit with a short stint at right D on the second pairing to make up for Ceci's demotion prior to Broberg's promotion.

With a full season together, Ekholm-Bouchard have played so well they are now the Oilers' top pairing, handling all the tough competition in the process. That leaves Kulak in the same position he was in last season after the trade - playing below his capabilities as a very good bottom pairing defender, but capable of playing in the top four, a chance it's unlikely he will get from the Oilers. From a depth perspective you have to applaud Kris Knoblauch and Ken Holland for their depth management here. However, it still leaves the team with a guy making $2.75 million playing on the bottom pairing, not a good use of cap space and and an easy way to subtract from the roster.

Or is it? Unlike with Ceci, Kulak's replacement is not already on the roster, meaning you'd have to hope and pray someone from the farm team makes it - a reckless strategy. Or you'd have to trade Kulak for a cheaper outside hire, which likely results in a downgrade talent-wise, despite the fact it would save the team in cap space. Kulak is not as easy to replace internally, and he played better than Ceci did last season. Not to mention he wouldn't garner as much in trade, since he's a LD and not a RD like Ceci is.

Personally, that's not a prospect I relish. Despite the fact the circumstances are not ideal, I think it's best to keep Kulak, at least for next season, and kick the decision on him down at least one more season. Kulak is signed for two more seasons including next season so that might up his trade value slightly, but not enough to compel the team to move him. If the Oilers are still hurting for cap space after next season, then Kulak may be first on the trading block. However, for this coming season my feeling is the Oilers will focus more on Ceci, as he's the more immediate and higher priority trade target.

3) Evander Kane - only an outside chance

The fact that interim GM Jeff Jackson was able to bring back the band plus add Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner is a phenomenal thing for the Oilers' prospects at winning the cup next season. However, Evander Kane suffered from a sports hernia throughout most of last season, and it knocked him out of the lineup for most of the Stanley Cup Final last season.

As per the Daily Faceoff, looking at the Oilers' line combos for next season, it's hard to see a place in the lineup for Kane at his default LW. Kane is a dual winger, so he is capable of playing his off-wing. However, the depth is almost as good at RW for the Oilers, and is certainly ironclad in the top six forward group as I highly doubt Kane is supplanting Zach Hyman or Arvidsson out of the lineup next season. You might say he'd replace Corey Perry in the lineup, but even then -- in the playoffs especially -- ideally you'd want both guys in the lineup, not one or the other.

However, even putting aside the issue of where Kane will play, there's no doubt his $5.125 million pact would save the Oilers some cap if they could get rid of it. But, it's really not that simple. The fact is Kane's contract is far and away the hardest to move of anyone on this list. Here's why:

A) Kane has a No-Movement Clause (NMC) in his contract until past the halfway point of next season -- Mar. 1, 2025 -- at which point his contract reverts to a 16 team approved list modified No-Trade-Clause. That automatically eliminates half the teams in the NHL right away - and you have to wait until almost the trade deadline to do it anyway. Unless Kane himself wants to wave the NMC - with this clause, the player holds the cards, not the team. Good luck trying to trade that away. If Kane doesn't want to go anywhere he doesn't have to, and even after Mar. 1 only half the league is available to the Oilers to trade him.

B) Kane finished first on the Oilers in overall hits with 250 and is the highest lineup regular in hits/60 with 11.61. You don't just trade that away, and it becomes even more vital come playoff time. Knoblauch will simply have to find a way to keep him in the lineup more often than not.

C) When healthy, Kane is one of the best power forwards in the league, maybe the best. He scored 24 goals for the Oilers last season, and the season before if he weren't for the fact he got injured he would've had 32 goals had he kept up that same scoring pace. This combination of physicality, pestilence, and scoring is not easily duplicated in one player around the NHL - think a younger version of Perry. Like Perry, Kane knows how to get into opponents' heads and get under their skin, something that again becomes even more valuable during the playoffs.

D) The Oilers might be able to get some Long-Term Injured Reserve cap space out of him next season, depending on how severe his sports hernia is. Since I'm not a doctor I can't make a decision one way or the other on this one. That means even if he's out for the season he's still being useful to the team, and they can feed off his motivation to heal and get back into the lineup.

E) Perry himself is a factor in deciding to keep Kane. The 39-year-old is not an everyday player and it's obvious he has lost a step. Having a guy like Kane who can step in and play that role already potentially is extremely valuable, especially in the playoffs. Perry still has his uses, but at 39 it's worthwhile asking if perhaps his time might be done in the NHL? (Kane is only 32.) There's no doubt in my mind Perry wants to go out a winner and I'd bet almost anything he'll retire if the Oilers win the Cup after next season, so he can go out a champion.

Raphael Lavoie re-ups with the Oilers

With all the brouhaha that happened on the first day of free agency, one of the more under the radar moves happened when the Oilers re-upped Raphael Lavoie. He was re-signed for one year, on a two-way deal worth $775,000 in the NHL and a raise for playing in the AHL, up to $225,000.

It's hard to say if Lavoie's future lies here or with another organization at this time. However, I would wager he's a candidate for callup next season, along with fellow forwards Matt Savoie, Jayden Grubbe, and James Hamblin, as well as goalie Olivier Rodrigue and blueliners Phil Kemp and Connor Carrick.

Matthew Savoie top candidate for a roster spot or callup

Looking at Matt Savoie's potential is certainly compelling. He'll start out in Bakersfield, but if he ends his season on the Oilers and lives up to the hype, I would expect that there's a chance he could replace Skinner in the lineup as a cheap scoring option on Leon Draisaitl's wing. Although I can't find any information about whether Arvidsson can play his off side. (CapFriendly was really good for that, too bad it's gone now.)

However, someone will have to move to the left side if that happens, as Arivdsson is a RWer and Savoie is a C/RW as well - and he's not replacing Draisaitl or Connor McDavid at centre. Hmm....maybe Savoie finishes the year in the bottom six and Kane moves up to the top six.....I'll leave it in the capable hands of Knoblauch, but it's fun to think about.