The Top 3 Overpaid Edmonton Oilers Right Now
Managing the salary cap is key in the NHL today. Here are the top 3 overpaid players on the Edmonton Oilers right now in my opinion.
As we wait for the Edmonton Oilers to officially start skating before the start of this season now is the perfect time to look at this upcoming season's roster and see where the issues may be. In the cap era of the NHL one of the main places that people look is the salary of a player. Every team has its players who are overpaid and underpaid. In this article, I am going to take a look at which three players I think are overpaid for the Edmonton Oilers.
Darnell Nurse- $9.25 Million AAV
We all knew that this was going to be a bad deal the moment the amount of this contract was announced. That this deal was not going to age well with Nurse unless he is the Edmonton Oilers' best defenseman. While is one of the best defensemen the amount he gets paid more than the rest of the Oilers d-core does not make sense.
For the Oilers' top 3 defensemen cap wise there is Nurse at the top making $9.25 million, second is Ekholm who has a cap hit of $6 million, which includes the $250,000 the Predators retained, then after that it is Evan Bouchard who currently makes $3.9 million. The problem that is about to come up is Bouchard is due to get another contract after this season which will give him a decent raise.
The concern for Oilers fans is the fact that he may want to make more than Nurse as Bouchard puts up much more points than every other defenseman on this team, mostly due to the fact he is on the powerplay, but points are points. I think if Nurse was signed for less money, then you would also be able to sign Evan Bouchard for less money.
So not only does the Nurse contract hurt you by itself, but I also think that is going to end up hurting the team in negotiations with Bouchard because Nurse will be used as a comparable when the two sides are trying to find the salary paid to Bouchard. Which will cause Bouchard to get more taking away money from other pieces of this team.
Evander Kane- $5.125 Million AAV
The second name on this list is Evander Kane. While Kane does have the ability to play up to and sometimes beyond his $5.125 million cap hit, he rarely does. The current issue with Kane is his health status being in the air. This offseason we have heard both sides of the extreme regarding his health and we still don't know what is happening.
There are reports that Kane is going to be starting the season on the LTIR and there are opposite reports that he is going to be there for day one of training camp ready to go. If he is there on day one and is 100% healthy then his name doesn't really belong on this list. Unfortunately, I do not think that is going to be the case. I think Kane wants to play even though he is slightly hurt, and the Oilers want him to have some sort of surgery that will make him eventually 100% healthy.
Another issue with Kane is that he was brought in to play in the Oilers' top six. Right now, even if he is completely healthy, he still would be placed outside of the top 6. With the signings of Arvidsson and Skinner, Kane has been pushed down the depth chart. This makes his $5.125 million look worse cause he would be an expensive bottom 6 player.
Kane also has a no movement clause which turns into a limited no-move right before the trade deadline this season. That is a positive for the Oilers, a team who are going to need to bring in a defenseman at the deadline to improve what they have. Not only would the Oilers be getting $5.125 million off the books, but the team receiving him will have a skilled player locked up for a couple more years. At the deadline, Kane may just be the Oilers' biggest chip in a trade, if they choose to move on from him.
Corey Perry- $1.15 Million AAV
Last on the list is Corey Perry and his $1.15 million deal. Now I am completely aware that when it comes to an NHL roster $1.15 million should not make or break a team, but I just can't seem to understand why Perry demanded so much money to keep him in Edmonton. We aren't talking about 28 year old Corey Perry we are talking about 39 year old Perry. While he does bring some veteran leadership to the team, I just can't imagine that Perry had a long list of suitors waiting for him.
After his contract was voided by the Blackhawks last season Perry signed with the Oilers midseason. From that point on he was in and out of the lineup a bit and didn't even play in every game in the playoffs. This makes me wonder even more why a player who didn't get regular minutes for you in the playoffs getting more than $1 million.
Just like I said right at the start of this section $1.15 million vs $750,000 shouldn't move the needle too much for this team, that a chunk of money could have gone to a player like Dylan Holloway, so he wouldn't have to sign an offer sheet and would be back with this team.
While I do not know the role that Perry will be playing on the team this coming season, I do know that he will likely be playing on the fourth line. While a $1.15 million fourth liner isn't the worst move a $1.15 million 39 year old Corey Perry is far from the best move.
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I am sure that these players will have their positive moments this season and that they are indeed players who will make this team better, the problem I have with them is not their gameplay it is the amount they are getting paid to provide that gameplay. I hope that they all come into this season and prove me wrong, but I honestly do not think they will and that is why they are on this list.
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