Stan Bowman, the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, has an abundance of confidence in his decision making process. He isn't afraid of spending assets to go after the players he believes will help his hockey club, and he doesn't waffle on those decisions if they don't pay immediate dividends. These are potentially positive traits for a National Hockey League GM, assuming the decisions they make are good ones.
Over the past 48 hours, the two big deadline acquisitions from the Chicago Blackhawks, center Jason Dickinson and defenseman Connor Murphy, have committed to long term deals. Barring trades, they'll both play into their mid-or-late thirties in Oilers orange and blue. Both players certainly showed positive attributes over the stretch drive and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in spite of the Oilers' early exit at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks.
Term negates flexibility
As Bowman attempts to send long time Oiler Darnell Nurse off to new horizons without losing the trade, the risk of significant term should be very clear to him. The day Nurse's contract was signed it was an albatross, with dollars spent that never matched his output. That's not Nurse's fault, but it was an Oiler GM (Ken Holland) who wasn't thinking about the distant future. Bowman already has the Trent Frederic contract on his record, and if either Murphy or Dickinson falls off significantly in the first year or two of these contracts, they'll be two more potential obstacles in the way of a championship.
The other side of the coin is naturally the total dollars versus dollars per season. These players may have wanted more in terms of yearly salary if the length of the offered deals was shorter, but it's a GM's job to negotiate those scenarios, and when the player's (or rather the player agent's) ask is too high for the value they bring to the team, it's up to the GM to walk away, looking elsewhere for the right player to fill that roster spot.
The worrying thought that occurs to me, is that Bowman believes he's gaining $9.25 million in salary by moving out Darnell Nurse, but if nothing significant comes back to the Oilers on an eventual Nurse deal, then the roster is weaker, even with Murphy and Dickinson locked up. Given that Connor McDavid took the most significant discount in league history to try and win a Stanley Cup in Edmonton, every player negotiation needs to include that example up front. These long term depth deals are potentially death by a thousand cuts, and they may end up every bit as painful as a single overpayment to a significant UFA.
The Oilers need to be in "Win now" mode, and these contracts may be just that, but the players in question weren't enough to get Edmonton out of Round 1 of the Playoffs, and as of today, the roster looks awfully similar to the one that fell short last season.
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