Bargain bin shopping with Ken Holland

The Edmonton Oilers continued to work the bargain bin of the NHL free agent market by inking Dominik Kahun Sunday.

It puts a bow on what has been a really nice offseason, sans the Mike Smith signing, for Ken Holland and co.

It featured another offseason of bargain bin hunting for the organization that had been desperately looking to improve the depth of the team. And that’s exactly what the Oilers were able to do. Not only that, but it’s shown that Holland is wiser than he may have been given credit for as for the second straight year he looks to improve through depth.

The Oilers have been slightly hamstrung due to cap constraints over the last few years. Last year he signed the likes of Riley Sheahan, Josh Archibald, Gaetan Haas, Tomas Jurco, Markus Granlund and Joakim Nygard to one-year deals.

Three, arguably four, of these players actually made impacts on the Oilers. Jurco needed surgery that kept him from playing, while Granlund was a bust. Sheahan was far from perfect for the Oilers and while he bled goals and chances at even-strength, he was a solid penalty kill option for the Oilers.

Archibald showed his ability to play up and down the lineup and play multiple games. A jack of all trades sort, he was on pace for career highs in goals, assists and points over an 82-game season. Not only that but he showed he could play the grinding bottom-six role while killing penalities.

Haas took a while to acclimate but showed he was a very solid defensive fourth-line center for the Oilers while fellow European Nygard fought injuries with a broken hand suffered just as he was finding his stride. The last three all got new deals and will be back this season.

Holland has put in similar work this offseason. He’s brought in Kyle Turris on a two-year deal as he looks to continue his .5ppg scoring ways, while bringing back Tyler Ennis on a one-year deal. These two will be dynamic adds for the Oilers middle-six. Not only that, but he signed a star defenceman in Tyson Barrie who took less money and term to sign in Edmonton.

Other signings like that of Anton Forsberg, Seth Griffith and Alan Quine will help to round out the AHL roster and will serve as potential callup options.

Now, Holland has added a solid scoring winger for very cheap in Kahun who not only has a ton of familiarity with Leon Draisaitl, but has shown his ability to put up points in the NHL. I’m looking forward to looking back at this article at the end of this season just to see how well they’ve all fared, but on paper the Oilers are going to be a better team than they were last year.

On Twitter: @zjlaing