Edmonton Oilers' projected cap hit worse than it appears

Even with a few days for everything to calm down, passions are still running high about the decision by the Oilers to hire Stan Bowman as their General Manager and Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. A lot of people remain angry about the move, with an example being the 6,214 signatures (at the time of writing) accrued on a petition to keep Bowman out of the organisation.

Despite the negativity swirling around the situation though, the reality is that Bowman isn't going anywhere. CEO Jeff Jackson took plenty of time to make the decision, and will have consulted owner Daryl Katz along with -- no matter how much Jackson claims otherwise -- the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, before confirming the hire.

With this in mind, Bowman has plenty to sink his teeth into right away, as he attempts to repair his reputation within NHL circles. And priority number one is the Oilers' current salary cap situation.

Oilers among those over the cap for 2024-25

As per Josh Erickson of Pro Hockey Rumors, there are currently four NHL teams projected to exceed the $88 million salary cap for the 2024-25 season. These include the Washington Capitals at $98.27 million, the Vegas Golden Knights at $91.64 million and the Philadelphia Flyers at $88.83 million.

We're sure it will come as no surprise to Oilers fans, that their team is the fourth one currently above the salary cap for this coming season. As per PuckPedia, they have a cap space of -$354,167 at the time of writing.

Now on a surface level, at least the Oilers have the smallest amount needed of the four teams named, to comply with the salary cap for the 2024-25 campaign. However, in some respects this can be called an illusion of sorts.

It will potentially get worse for the Oilers

The reason for this is that the Oilers still have a couple of players to agree with terms with. More specifically, we're referring to restricted free agents Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.

Obviously the Oilers are working on getting both players re-signed, with each proving their respective value during this past season. They're young, talented and still working towards fulfilling their potential, which is an exciting prospect for the team and their fans alike.

The question is, how much will it take to re-sign the duo, i.e. how much further over the salary cap will this put the Oilers? Oilers Now host Bob Staueffer recently discussed this on his show, saying the organisation ideally want to get them signed on respective two-year deals in the low $1 million mark annually.

Let's just assume Holloway and Broberg will agree deals that put the Oilers at around $3 million over the cap. This is when Bowman will really need to begin proving his worth, by getting the organisation back under the $88 million cap for 2024-25.

As we've previously written, the two best options open to the Oilers involve Cody Ceci and Evander Kane, with their respective cap hits of $3.25 million and $5.125 million. Either trading one or both, or in the case of Kane specifically, also the potential option of placing him on Long Term Injured Reserve.

Overall, you know the Oilers will be cap compliant by the time they begin the 2024-25 campaign, but it's about how they get there. And just by virtue of bringing Bowman on board, the organisation should expect to receive more criticism on average about any move made moving forward, with a lot of people looking for any excuse to continue criticise the hiring.

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