Edmonton Oilers one of 11 teams carrying cap overages into 2024-25 season

The Edmonton Oilers will be one of nearly a dozen teams who will carry salary cap overages into the 2024-25 season.

As confirmed by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli and CapFriendly, the Oilers themselves will carry the largest overage, up to $3.45-million. That could rise more, however, as Corey Perry can earn an additional $50,000 each for the Oilers reaching the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.

The bulk of the Oilers’ overage comes from Connor Brown’s contract. The winger signed a one-year deal that accounted for $775,000 against the salary cap, but had a performance bonus in his contract in which he would earn $3.225-million for playing in 10 games for the team — something he had no issue hitting this season, having played in 71 this season. Brown scored four goals and 12 points in them.

Six teams in total will carry overages of over $1-million, including the Montreal Canadiens ($1.007-million), the New Jersey Devils ($1.538-million), the L.A. Kings ($1.85-million), the Washington Captials ($2.04-million), the Dallas Stars ($2.579-million), and the aforementioned Oilers. Other clubs carrying a variety of overages include the Hurricanes, Panthers, Bruins, Flyers, Wild, Rangers and Senators.

So with the salary cap projected to rise to $87.7-million, the Oilers will effectively enter the offseason with no increase, effectively working with $82,333,333 in cap space, according to Seravalli. It will be a hinderance for the team, no doubt, given the large number of roster spots they need to fill at the NHL level, with 12 pending unrestricted and restricted free agents heading into the offseason.

The Oilers can get some additional relief buying out Jack Campbell, which would increase their cap space to $86.233-million, futher kicking cap penalties down the road. It would bring their cap space up to $18.133-million, which may sound like a lot, but isn’t considering it would give, on average, $1.51-million in cap space per roster spot to fill.

Some of it will be easy for the Oilers. RFA’s Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg’s next deals will likely come in under that amound, and only one of those pending free agents make over that average amount in Warren Foegele, who will be due for a raise from his $2.75-million salary this season.

But some of it will be difficult. The team will surely want to improve the roster in the offseason, as is the goal of virtually every team in the league, so there’s potential for the club to make some trades to clear up further cap space.

Before any of that comes, the Oilers hope to have a lot more hockey to play.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.