Brandon Manning clears waivers

The clean-up of Peter Chiarelli’s mess continues. To the surprise of nobody, Brandon Manning has made his way through waivers unclaimed. He’ll now report to AHL Bakersfield.

The Oilers will save $1,025,000 on Manning’s cap hit with him buried in the AHL, meaning his cap number will now be $1,225,000. He’s signed for one more season beyond this one and that $1,225,000 figure will be his cap hit in 2019-20 if the Oilers can’t orchestrate a trade.

Of course, the Oilers could also buy Manning out in the off-season. If they go that route, he’ll have a cap hit of $916,667 in 2019-20 and a cap hit of $666,667 in 2020-21. At this point, if the Oilers can’t find a deal like the one they did involving Ryan Spooner and Sam Gagner, it would be better just to eat the final year of Manning’s contract rather than stretching it out for another year.

There’s no doubt that this trade has been a disaster since moment one. When the Blackhawks managed to deal Manning without taking on any salary, media and fans in Chicago were shocked that Stan Bowman was able to get out from under his worst decision of the off-season.

Not only was the Manning acquisition puzzling because he’s a bad defenceman on a bad contract, but it was also met with ire from the fanbase because of his history with Connor McDavid. Chiarelli feeling it was a good idea to deal one of Edmonton’s few solid wingers for yet another bottom-pairing defenceman was just shockingly bad GMing, even by his standards.

Manning played 12 games with the Oilers, scoring one goal while averaging 13:25 minutes of ice time per game. Caggiula, on the other hand, has six points in 17 games with the Blackhawks. He still ranks in a tie for sixth on the Oilers in goals.