NHL free agency slated to open on October 9th

As the NHL playoffs roll on, we’re starting to get a better idea of what the schedule will look like in terms of normal offseason activities. Today, it was announced on Twitter via TSN’s Pierre LeBrun that the NHL’s free agency period will quick off on October 9th as the league continues to shift its operations as a result of COVID-19.

It goes without saying that 2020 will go down as one of the strangest years in NHL history and that goes for the way the playoffs are being played to when the league will hold its annual draft and free agency period. Normally by this point on the calendar, we’d all be getting set for training camp for a brand new season, but here in the strange Corona days, everything has been shifted by four+ months from where we’re usually at. In any other year, we’d have all spent our Canada Day drinking beer and complaining about who the Oilers did or didn’t sign, but that annual tradition will have to wait until October 9th and it will be incredibly interesting to see how our team navigates these uncharted waters.

At the time of posting, the Oilers currently have @Tyler Ennis, @Riley Sheahan, and @Mike Smith as pending UFAs while @Ethan Bear, @Matt Benning, @Andreas Athanasiou, and Jesse Puljujarvi are all RFAs in need of a new contract. According to PuckPedia.com, the Oilers currently have about $8,247,499 worth of space with 19 players signed for next season, which means that Ken Holland is going to have to get creative when it comes to re-signing his RFAs while also looking for upgrades throughout his roster.