The 2026-27 Edmonton Oilers are poised to look much different from their predeccesor, with changes in the front office, plenty of potential candidates to be their new coach, and throughout their lineup.
General manager Stan Bowman needs to have a bold summer if he plans to take the team back to the Stanley Cup Finals, following a disappointing first round exit. By the end of their season, even the Oilers captain had strong words to say about his average team.
There is a lot riding on this offseason and it could possibly be the most crucial for the Oilers over the Connor McDavid era in Edmonton. In order for the team to make the appropriate changes on the ice, they will need to open up salary cap space, currently expected to have just $14.5 million according to puckpedia.
Luckily, there are many ways they can save cap and open up even more room.
Oilers need to invest in their youth
One of the best ways for NHL teams to ice competitive rosters and get ahead is by, let's face it, exploiting their young players. Being able to insert cheap and young players who can fill roles and even potentially exceed expectations is a huge advantage for some teams. This is partially why the Oilers have been willing to make moves for players such as Matt Savoie and Isaac Howard to fill their lineup.
These were both players who have shown sky high potential and were able to be acquired for a player in Ryan McLeod who priced himself out of Edmonton and Sam O'Reilly who could come back to bite the Oilers, but who is expected to fit a lower lineup role down the road.
If the Oilers promote some of their young players, it could give them a lot of cap savings where they would typically have to sign proven NHL players to multi million dollar contracts to fill holes. For example, if the club can use Josh Samanski to play bottom-six centre minutes, he could be a useful player for just $975,000. As well, Quinn Hutson could be an option as a top-nine scoring winger and Connor Clattenburg could be a useful fourth line winger.
All three of those players would only cost a combined $2.79 million but would typically cost much more. Adam Henrique last season cost the Oilers $3 million against the salary cap, a good reason why the team should move on from him.
Shedding albatross contracts
Another way that the Oilers can better restructure their salary cap is by trading away players who make more money than their value to the club.
A player that fits this is one of the fanbase's favourite scapegoats, defenceman Darnell Nurse who costs the Oilers $9.25 million against the cap. Given the rise to the NHL salary cap to $104 million this year and with many covetting big, mobile defenceman that can hit and chip in offensively, there appears to be no shortage of viable suitors for Nurse.
Every few days there is a new rumour surrounding Nurse trade talks and it seems like the team is expected to move on from him. Elliotte Friedman recently reported that the Oilers plan to pressure Nurse into waiving his no movement clause.
Depending on how a trade works, the Oilers could come away with a roster player -- who will inevitably eat up some of Nurse's caphit -- but the Oilers could conceivably walk away with even a few million dollars in cap savings. Something that will help the team immensely as they try to upgrade the team.
As well, moving on from Trent Frederic who makes $3.85 million for the next seven seasons could help the Oilers salary cap situation. He was acquired at the 2025 trade deadline but his time as an Oiler has not gone well so far. However, if the Oilers choose to move on from him now he will surely cost them an asset and will probably still be forced to retain some salary.
Tristan Jarry is another player that has a big cap hit at $5.375 million for the next two seasons. He was acquired midseason but it has not worked so far and the Oilers could be smart to get out from under his deal if they can. Again, it will cost an asset and could even have to eat some of his salary in a deal too but it is something that could be worth it given the Oilers goaltending situation.
There are smaller moves that the Oilers can make such as trading Mattias Janmark but given how his season ended, there is a good chance he may find himself stashed on long term injured reserve for the final season of his contract, paying him $1.45 million.
If the Oilers are able to successfully move all four of these players, it would represents nearly $20 million in reallocated salary cap. This can really change the structure of their salary cap but also the structure of their team, both things they need.
This is a sizeable chunk and if Bowman makes the right moves, it could be just what the Oilers need to get back to battling for the Stanley Cup.
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