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Why accruing $21 million in cap space isn’t realistic for the Oilers

By Tyler Yaremchuk

Jul 25, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 24, 2026, 20:50 EDT

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Well, we are fully entrenched in the dog days of the NHL off-season, and on top of that, my beloved Toronto Blue Jays are past the point of breaking my heart. They’ve ripped it out and are continually stomping on it on a nightly basis.

Between there being no fun Oilers news to discuss, baseball not fulfilling any of my sports fandom needs, and the historic amounts of rain killing a good chunk of our prime golf season… it hasn’t been a great summer for me so far!

But you’re not here to listen to my own self-pity; you’re here to read about the Edmonton Oilers.

One topic that is still getting people going online is the Oilers’ current amount of cap space.

Some have pointed out that if the Oilers were to simply go into the season with their current $4.7 million in cap space, that cap space could accrue and by the time the trade deadline rolls around, they would have around $21 million in space to work with.

In theory, that’s a good idea, but there are some big flaws with that thinking.

Oilers don’t have the assets to use that much cap space

First off, even if the season were to go perfectly and they had north of $20 million in available space at the deadline, which players would they even use that money on?

The team doesn’t have the assets to acquire $21 million worth of quality players. Could they go out and take on some bad contracts like Jonathan Huberdeau’s in Calgary? I guess they could, but I’m not sure I see the logic in a move like that.

On top of that, there are the new playoff salary cap rules that came into effect last season, meaning that even if the Oilers acquired north of $20 million in players, they wouldn’t be able to fit them into their game-day cap picture in the playoffs.

It would be essentially pointless.

If the Oilers could accrue around $8 million in cap space, then I could get behind that. That would be enough to go out and potentially acquire a premier rental, like maybe Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat, and actually fit them into their playoff cap picture.

It’s also worth noting that they currently have $4.7 million in cap space with eight defencemen on their roster. Putting Spencer Stastney on waivers would clear up an extra $1.2 million in cap space.

Could Vladimir Tarasenko or Michael Bunting fit Edmonton’s roster?

I don’t think the Oilers necessarily need to go out and waste their cap space just for the sake of it, but what would be wrong with bringing in a player like Vladimir Tarasenko or even Michael Bunting on a one-year deal?

Tarasenko would be a very intriguing fit because of the offensive upside. I would love to see the Oilers find a way to add a strong five-on-five scorer, and when looking at potential fits in their top six, it’s important to take out power play production because there really isn’t a lot of power play time to go around in Edmonton.

Tarasenko scored a total of 16 goals at five-on-five last season, and over the last three seasons, he’s averaged 14 five-on-five goals per year. That number would’ve ranked him sixth on the Oilers last season.

He’s also a durable player, appearing in over 75 games in four of the last five seasons.

Even if you need to overpay a little bit in order to keep the term to one year, it would be a win for the Oilers.

Let’s say they bring in a player making $3.5 million for next season and send down Stastney. In that scenario, they would still have around $2.4 million in cap space, and that would accrue to just under $10 million by the trade deadline if everything went according to plan.

They could also send down Mattias Janmark and free up another $1.2 million if they needed to.

I am not against the idea of saving some cap space for the deadline, but they don’t need to accrue the amount that they currently have.

They should still be open to the idea of adding another forward to the mix. Even if it doesn’t work out, it won’t hurt their chances of adding a player later down the line.

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