On Sunday night, word broke that the Oilers would be signing Dominik Kahun to a one-year contract and since I don’t know a whole lot about him yet, I thought it would be a good idea to dive into the Internet machine to see what kind of player we have here.

Looking for a fun way to spend a few minutes of your Wednesday? Missing the Oilers? You’re in luck. Over at YouTube, user Three Rivers Sports Highlights put together a compilation of all of the goals @Dominik Kahun scored with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2019-20 season (he added two more in Buffalo that are not included in this compilation) and it felt like the kind of content we all needed to study this morning. For a team that was short on skilled depth this past year, having Kahun sign-on for the upcoming season should hopefully add another boost of offensive flair to a roster that needs it. After watching this video all the way through a handful of times, the first thing I noticed is that Kahun seems to be the kind of player that is able to get things done from in tight while also possessing a range of skills to make plays and drive to the net.

From everything I’ve watched so far, Kahun has hands, a quick release, and the ability to make plays, which is a trifecta of skills that the Oilers desperately need in their lineup if they’re going to take another tangible step forward. None of this is new information to anyone here, we’ve all been living through this hellish Infinibuild® for years now, but it’s starting to feel like we’re finally finding solutions to our longstanding problems. And while I’ve already decided that this contract could turn out to be a steal for Ken Holland regardless of what happens, watching the way Kahun scores goals makes me feel even more confident in that pre-mature conclusion and I’d bet that you will feel the same after watching the following video.

Even though it’s still way too early to project what Kahun’s first season with the Oilers will look like — he’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the year — it’s hard to dislike much anything about this low-cost bet by Ken Holland. In Kahun, the Oilers picked up another cheap offensive player that will like (read: surely) upgrade their 5v5 scoring and that’s something we’ve been wanting for years, making this offseason an impressive one given the cap limitations that management had to work with. Sure, you could definitely say that I’m counting my chickens before they’ve hatched, but I also don’t foresee many scenarios where a healthy Kahun can’t outscore guys like @Alex Chiasson, @Riley Sheahan, and @Josh Archibald.

From where I blog, I see an Oilers roster that honestly looks like it has three legitimate lines for the first time since I can remember, and that’s something that could make a real difference on a nightly basis. Over the past few years, the Oilers NEEDED McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins to do the bulk of the heavy lifting when it came to scoring, a role all three of those guys will surely fill again when the new season rolls around, but it will be nice to have a few more players in the lineup that will be able to contribute and ease the pressure from time to time. Maybe I’m completely wrong on this and all of this year’s moves will blow up in our faces, but I have to admit that the work that was done this offseason has me feeling more optimistic about the upcoming year than I maybe expected.

In 56 games split between the Penguins and Sabres during the 2019-20 season, Kahun registered 12 goals and 19 assists for 31 points to go along with 13:17 in average TOI, eight PIMS, a 50% CF%, and a 54.9 oZS%.