The Edmonton Oilers know that if they want to push their team over the hump and the Stanley Cup into their grasps, their going to need to make some changes to their roster.
The team was good, no doubt, but their goaltending couldn’t come up big when they needed it most, their scoring dried up in the final two games and injuries to Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were too much to overcome.
And while the Oilers have $11.92-million in salary cap space, according to PuckPedia, and the overwhelming majority of that money will be taken up by the next contract for restricted free agent defenceman Evan Bouchard. Oilers general manager Stan Bowman indicated during his season-ending press conference Friday that most of the changes the team makes will be in the forward group and between the pipes, and if they want to do so, they’ll need to clear up cap space.
Enter Evander Kane and Viktor Arvidsson — two Oilers wingers who didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli had both on his latest edition of Trade Targets, posted Friday, with Kane coming in at No. 6 on the list and Arvidsson No. 19.
“Has Evander worn out his welcome in Edmonton? Or is it just time?” speculated Seravalli about Kane, while calling the situation between the Oilers and Arvidsson one where “Maybe this is one of those situations where it is mutually beneficial to move on.”
And on Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Seravalli dove deeper into Kane and the Oilers.
“I think the Mason Marchment deal probably helps set the table in terms of what the Oilers could reasonably expect to get in return. No one is going to be doing the Oilers any favours and the difference between Kane and Marchment is that, well, Marchment doesn’t come with any baggage, so Kane obviously does. I don’t know if it’s fair to say he’s worn out his welcome — I think it’s probably knocking on the door of that category.I do think that as the Oilers look for cap flexibility, Arvidsson is one, but if you really want to fix your goaltending and you want to bring in someone to play with Stuart Skinner, and you want to pay that guy $6-million, where are you going to get that money from? It’s got to come from somewhere and I don’t know the Oilers can afford to squeeze at other points in their lineup.They survived, obviously, an entire regular season without Kane, and he was good for stretches of the playoffs but not consistent, and also played a really selfish brand of hockey when it came to the Stanley Cup Final himself. I do think a better than 50 percent chance, which is why he’s so high up on the board at six, but it may not come together quickly and it may even get to a place for the Oilers where it’s painful.”
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
