Oilers are second-best again to the Panthers, but it's still a positive

It's fair to say it's been an interesting few days for the Edmonton Oilers with the first real negativity and criticism they've received this offseason, albeit of their own doing. Suffice it to say, but the decision to hire Stan Bowman as their General Manager and Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, is not going to sit well with a lot of people for quite a while.

With this in mind, let's try to bring some positivity back into the room, something which was in plentiful supply up until Wednesday. And it comes courtesy of an article by The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn.

Luszczyszyn undertook The Athletic's annual task (subscription required), to rank all 32 NHL teams for contract efficiency. In other words, which teams are spending their money most wisely?

For an understanding of how The Athletic approaches these valuations: "The goal here is to grade contracts empirically with the same context being applied to each player across the league: How much value does each player bring to the table per year and over the life of the contract? The way that’s measured comes from comparing a player’s Net Rating and the expected salary that comes with it to a player’s current contract. What players have already done holds no merit, this is about the future value of the deal. Contract clauses and bonus structure are important, but not considered in this assessment. Players on LTIR were not considered."

Second place once more to the Panthers

This time last year the Oilers ranked eighth, which obviously isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. However, this time around they're even better, moving all the way up to second place behind ... you guessed it ... just the Florida Panthers, their opponents in this season's Stanley Cup Final.

Luszczyszyn has given the Oilers an overall grade of A (the Panthers were given a A+). This will surely have been at least partly helped, considering the value for money and overall team-friendly deals they got new and returning free agents alike to agree to.

On the positive end of things, three Oilers players have been given A+ contract grades, thanks to their excellent annual surplus value. The three players in question are Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard.

Of course McDavid is no surprise - heck, he could be earning $100 million per season and his contract would still be considered good value for money. Okay, maybe a little bit of hyperbole, but you get the point.

Hyman is just behind McDavid in annual surplus value, with him aiming to continue performing well above expectations as he has done during the first three seasons of his seven-year deal. As for Bouchard, he actually has the best annual surplus value on the team, which alludes to him still being underpaid, combined and expecting to continue progressing after his best season yet in the NHL.

To round out the A grade players, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl received an A and A- respectively. It will of course be interesting to see what Draisaitl's grade and annual surplus value are when he signs he next deal, regardless of if it's in Edmonton or elsewhere.

Not too bad when it comes to low grades

At the other end of the scale, the Oilers actually have nine players The Athletic considers, who are making more money than their value. However, most are negligible, with the exception of two.

More specifically we're talking about Evander Kane and Darnell Nurse, with them considered to be making $2.7 million and $3.4 million more respectively, than their contract values. More damning for Nurse individually, he's the only Oiler to receive a D grade, at D-.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Kane, with speculation continuing that the Oilers would like to trade him and if not, potentially put him on Long Term Injured Reserve pending his situation. As for Nurse, the Oilers are probably stuck with him for another six seasons and the organisation in the position of just having to suck it up, after overpaying him in the first place.

Now as we've already written, it should also be noted the Oilers still have to agree deals with restricted free agents Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Not that this will significantly move the needle in respect of the overall team contract efficiency.

As this relates to Bowman, it will be interesting to see how the Oilers rank this time next year, with him already working from a disadvantaged position. There are plenty of people who will be looking for any excuse to continue criticising the decision to hire him, and yes, we do mean even 12 months from now!

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