NHL Notebook: Insider links John Klingberg and Jonathan Toews to Edmonton Oilers, the latest on Jason Demers and more
By Zach Laing
1 year agoLots going on around Edmonton these days.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek put out some NHL previews on their 32 Thoughts podcast and a few interesting names were linked to the Oilers: John Klingberg and Jonathan Toews.
Right off the top, the important thing to note here is the salaries. As we all know, Edmonton’s in LTIR hell so this/these notes could be chaotic. Klingberg carries a $7-million hit this year, while Toews is all the way up at $10.5-million.
For the Oilers, it would almost certainly require a third team to join in the deal to be able to eat salary on either of the pending UFAs.
In terms of Klingberg, we already know the Oilers had been in on him before he signed in Anaheim. The interest is there, but the Oilers’ right-side is already fairly clogged up with Cody Ceci, Evan Bouchard and Tyson Barrie. Flipping Barrie and his salary for Klingberg would make a ton of sense and a move I’d make in a heartbeat.
Toews would require some more work. What could make sense is having Chicago and a third team each eat 50% salary bringing his hit all the way down to $2.625-million. Warren Foegele has a $2.75-million cap hit. You can figure out the rest of it.
I talked about these this morning with Tyler Yaremchuk on Oilersnation Everyday.
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On Demers…
This is an interesting one.
The Oilers released Jason Demers from his PTO the other day, but he was practicing with the club on Tuesday morning.
According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Demers is expected to sign an ATO with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. I think the Oilers are giving Demers a chance to feel out offers and options from other teams around the league. From my perspective, signing him to a one-year deal and passing him through waivers makes the most sense. He’s a solid No. 8, and the Oilers will need the depth.
Flames sign Stone
He’s baaaackkkkk!
The Calgary Flames once again, signed defenceman Michael Stone to a one-year contract.
Here’s some of what my colleague Ryan Pike wrote at Flamesnation:
Stone, 32, originally joined the Flames in February 2017 after a trade prior to that season’s trade deadline. He then signed a three-year deal (2017-20), had that deal bought out for cap reasons after two seasons, then signed a one-year deal later that off-season after Juuso Valimaki blew out his knee (2019-20), then another one-year deal (2020-21), another one-year deal (2021-22) and yet another one-year deal (2022-23).What can we say about Stone? He’s always been reliable two-way depth, and he’s got a good shot that makes him useful in spot duty on the power play. His overall game is a little limited these days, but he’s a really savvy veteran who may be the ideal seventh defender based on his smarts, capabilities, cap hit and maturity.
Canucks use every cent of cap space
In what might be a first in the salary cap era in the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks used every single cent of their cap space.
That’s right. Every cent.
With a lineup of 22 active players, the Canucks utilied their cap space and LTIR perfectly.
Here’s some of how they did it, as written by Stephen Roget at CanucksArmy:
With Ferland on the LTIR, the Canucks are at 22 players to start (13 F, 7D, 2 G), albeit with absolutely no wiggle room, cap-wise. What they’ve done is essentially regained full use of the maximum $82.5 million in cap space, and they’re using all of it. Fortuitously, if Di Giuseppe ends up being out long-term, his $146,250 SOIR hit gets added to the $3.5 million in relief, too. Assuming that happens on Wednesday, that extra bit of space is all the Canucks would need to swap Klimovich back out for Karlsson, even though Karlsson now comes with his $82,500 in potential performance bonuses added to his cap hit. Further call-ups will require further placements on LTIR.The Canucks also wind up with a Performance Bonus Pool of $2,165,000, an amount that should be plenty manageable given their sudden abundance of maneuverability.It was, we can’t stress this enough, an absolute master class in cap management. The perfect shot. Everything, from the Riley Stillman-for-Jason Dickinson exchange to the number of days Di Giuseppe spent on the roster, factored into nailing this so hard, and they did it.Credit and kudos are due to the entire Canucks’ front office, with the first and loudest probably deserved by AGM Émilie Castonguay, a former agent who was brought on for her deep understanding of NHL contract law and has now plainly delivered.
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@oilersnation.com.
THE SEASON LAUNCH PARTY
For the first time in three seasons, we’re throwing a Season Launch Party at SOHO and you’re all invited to join us! What’s going on? I’m glad you asked.
- Date: Saturday, October 15th, 2022
- When: 5:00pm
- Location: SOHO YEG (11454 Jasper Ave)
- What’s Included: Entry to the event, Swag Bag (complete with w-shirt, stickers, GCs), entry to the giveaways, after party with RIFF/RAFF
- How: GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!
As always, we will also be including a charity component with the event where a portion of all ticket sales will be donated directly to Sport Central to help with their mission of providing equipment and bicycles to children in need.
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