Welcome to the dog days of summer.
For some NHL teams, it means exactly what it sounds like: a whole lot of nothing going on.
You can put the Edmonton Oilers in that category, getting their work done on July 1st loading up with a plethora of free-agent deals including ones that brought in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, as well as the returning of a number of their own.
But it doesn’t mean the Oilers still don’t have work to do. They’re $354k over the salary cap, according to PuckPedia, and have restricted free agents to sign in Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. When it comes to their new deals, however, Oilers colour commentator and host of 630 CHED’s OilersNow Bob Stauffer doesn’t see them coming anytime soon, he said on Friday’s edition of his show.
“I don’t see anything imminent out there, at this time, regarding Phillip Broberg, and for that matter, Dylan Holloway… I think from an Edmonton perspective, ideally you try to get those players done at two years, maybe in the low $1’s. There’s some similar numbers to some of the guys in Vancouver: Hoglander and Podkolzkin, that might make sense, particularly for a guy like Dylan Holloway. I see these maybe getting done at some point during August. Now, could there be an offer sheet? We don’t see a lot of offer sheets. I know there’s some people down in Calgary saying ‘Well, why don’t we go and offer sheet Philip Broberg?’ We’ll see what happens here. One thing we’ve seen is the Oilers have been very creative in cap space when they need to. We’ll have to see on that front.”
For the Oilers, getting both of their contracts in the low $1-million range, as Stauffer alludes to, would be ideal. They evidently don’t have much in terms of cap space, and have limited options to get cap compliant come the start of the season.
Those include placing Evander Kane on the long-term injured reserve is his sports hernia/hip ailment keeps him out of the lineup, or trading him, but that would require him to waive a no-trade clause. Another option could be to trade right-shot defenceman Cody Ceci.
In free agency, the Oilers signed three right-shot blueliners who could challenge for NHL minutes in Josh Brown, Troy Stecher and Connor Carrick, insulating themselves in case this is the option that comes to fruition.
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.
