Become Salary Cap Compliant
While I am a huge fan of all the signings the Oilers made this free agency it has caused one issue that needs to be resolved before the start of the 2024-25 season and that is to clear some cap space and become salary cap compliant. As it sits right now the Oilers are $354,167 over the cap, per CapFriendly, and still need to re-sign Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.
The Oilers have already made a big move in freeing up cap space when they traded away Ryan McLeod earlier this week which got the Oilers closer to the cap ceiling, but they are still over it. The big question now is how are the Oilers going to get down to that ceiling. There will obviously need to be some roster moves, but what type is still to be seen.
There are lots of rumours about what the Oilers can do. Most of them revolve around two players, Evander Kane and Cody Ceci. For the Oilers moving either of these two players would open up the amount of space that would be needed to bring back Holloway and Broberg.
For Ceci I think the main issue is finding a team that would take him and his while cap hit, while he is a solid player his cap hit of $3.25 million is more than a player in his spot in the lineup should be making. If he was to go to a weaker team perhaps he would play higher in the lineup, making his cap hit more manageable, but where he is on the Oilers he is overpaid for where he plays.
With Evander Kane, there is a completely different issue. Kane has a no-move clause in his contract, so the Edmonton Oilers can not trade him without his consent. From what I have seen it doesn't look like Kane is going to be willing to wave his no-move and honestly I don't blame him. He has set up his life here and the Oilers are a cup contender, there is no reason for him to want to leave this city.
With Jeff Jackson behind the helm, there is no way of predicting what moves will be done. So far it seems Jackson has the ability to be creative in the moves he makes, while it is a very short sample size I think if there is anyone in the organization to get the Oilers within the cap it is Jackson.
There is still a long time till the Edmonton Oilers hit the ice to start the road to the 2024-25 season, but the management will be busy till then. Hopefully they get most of their moves done here in the next couple of weeks. I do not want to have this team having to make last minute moves prior to the start of the season. That being said it is going to be a long couple of months with out Oiler hockey and I can't wait to see this new roster hit the ice.