Oilersnation Radio Episode 205 – The potential Zack Kassian buyout, Mike Smith’s future, and the CBA

It’s Tuesday afternoon and that means we’ve got a brand new episode of Oilersnation Radio to help you get through the middle part of your week with an hour of all things Edmonton Oilers. On today’s show, we looked at some of the names that are circling the rumour mill, the question marks around Smith and Keith, and a whole lot more.

Kicking off this week’s podcast, we got started with a look at the Zack Kassian buyout question and whether or not it would make sense for the Oilers to buy him out if a trade becomes impossible. It’s not that Kass isn’t an NHL player but with a $3.25 million cap hit, his name keeps coming up as one that needs to get cleared out if the Oilers are going to find some additional cap space. Would there be anyone that would be willing to trade for Kassian? Does it have to be a buyout? From there, we looked at the Mike Smith retirement situation after Elliotte Friedman speculated that the 40-year-old may be a candidate to put on LTIR rather than a full-on retirement. Sticking with potential retirements, we also looked at the speculation that the NHL is going to potentially change its cap recapture penalties in the event that Duncan Keith retires as the Blackhawks would then face a penalty if he hung up his skates before the full term expired. Not sure why the league would treat its own CBA as a suggestion more than a binding document but that’s where we’re at these days, I suppose. Lastly, we wrapped up the Tuesday episode of ONR with another round of Ask the Idiots to get the boys’ takes on the questions you’ve submitted since our last podcast.