The Edmonton Oilers made their first — and possibly only — significant move of free agency on Tuesday, signing winger Andrew Mangiapane to a two-year deal carrying a $3.6 million annual cap hit.

The signing came not long after Edmonton shipped Viktor Arvidsson to the Boston Bruins in a cap-clearing trade. With Arvidsson’s $4 million salary off the books and Mangiapane coming in at $3.6 million, the Oilers shaved $400,000 off their cap for 2025-26. Following the move, they now sit with roughly $950,000 in available space.

Going from Arvidsson to Mangiapane gives the Oilers some added flexibility financially, and it could also give the team a boost offensively. Let’s get to know the newest addition to Edmonton’s forward group.

Mangiapane is a player the Oilers know well from his time with the Calgary Flames. Selected in the sixth round of the 2015 draft from the Barrie Colts, the skilled winger scored 109 goals and racked up 215 points in 417 games across seven seasons with Edmonton’s provincial rival.

After scoring 51 points in 68 games in his rookie season in the Ontario Hockey League, Mangiapane went undrafted in 2014. He got a bigger role with the Colts in 2014-15 and finished sixth in the league with 43 goals and eighth with 104 points.

Despite that production, the undersized winger was available to the Flames with the 166th overall pick in the 2015 draft. Mangiapane scored 109 points in his final OHL season and continued to produce immediately upon reaching the professional level.

In his rookie season in the American Hockey League in 2016-17, Mangiapane scored 20 goals and 41 points in 66 games. He followed that up in 2017-18 with 21 goals and 46 points in 39 games for the Stockton Heat, leading to a 10-game cup of coffee with the big-league club.

Mangiapane split the 2018-19 season between Stockton and Calgary, scoring 17 points in 15 games with the Heat and 13 points in 44 games with the Flames. The following off-season, Mangiapane’s entry-level contract expired, and he re-upped on a one-year, two-way deal worth $715,000 in the NHL and $70,000 in the AHL.

The Flames got incredible value out of that show-me deal. Playing mostly on the team’s third line with Mikael Backlund, Mangiapane scored 17 goals and 32 points in 68 games in his first full NHL season in 2019-20. He then added five points in 10 games for Calgary in the summer bubble playoffs.

Mangiapane inked a two-year deal worth $2.425 million annually in the off-season and continued to increase his production in the following years. He scored 18 goals and 32 points in 56 games in the shortened 2021 season, before breaking out with 35 goals and 55 points in 82 games in 2021-22 as the Flames finished first in the Pacific Division with a 50-21-11 record.

We all know what happened to the Flames in the playoffs and the subsequent off-season that year. After getting hammered by the Oilers in the second round of the playoffs, Calgary had multiple key players leave the team in the summer. Johnny Gaudreau signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Matthew Tkachuk requested a trade and wound up with the Florida Panthers, and Sean Monahan was moved as a cap dump to the Montreal Canadiens.

Amid a wild off-season, the Flames re-signed Mangiapane to a three-year contract worth $5.8 million annually. The team took a step back in 2022-23, missing the playoffs with a 38-27-17 record. Mangiapane was among the players who saw a decline in production that year, going from 35 goals and 55 points to 17 goals and 43 points. The 2023-24 season was similar, as the winger scored 14 goals and 40 points in 75 games, and Calgary missed the playoffs with a 38-39-5 record.

Following back-to-back finishes outside of the playoffs, the Flames dealt Mangiapane in the off-season to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a second-round pick. FlamesNation editor Ryan Pike said at the time: “He was making $5.8 million against the salary cap in a deal signed right after his 35-goal campaign, and he seemed to have priced himself out of the Flames’ long-term plans.”

The Capitals played Mangiapane mostly on the team’s third line with Lars Eller down the middle. Washington finished at the top of the Eastern Conference with a 51-22-9 record and Mangiapane chipped in 14 goals and 28 points in 82 regular-season games.

Mangiapane struggled to live up to the contract that he signed in Calgary after his 35-goal season, averaging 15 goals and 37 points per year over the course of the deal. That level of production looks much better at a $3.6 million cap hit than it did at $5.8 million.

Viktor Arvidsson inked a two-year deal worth $4 million annually last summer with the Oilers and the two sides opted to part ways after one season. Arvidsson scored 15 goals and 27 points in 67 games during the regular season in 2024-25. He was in and out of the lineup during the playoffs, scoring two goals and seven points in 15 games.

Ultimately, it’s easy to look at this as a swap of Arvidsson for Mangiapane — one undersized, feisty, skilled winger for another. Even if this move is lateral and the Oilers get 15 goals from Mangiapane in 2025-26, it’ll still be a win because of the slight cap savings going from Arvidsson to him.

We also know that Arvidsson couldn’t find chemistry with either of Edmonton’s top centres. It’s possible that Mangiapane can return to his 2021-22 production playing alongside elite talent in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. If he does, the Oilers would be getting great value on this deal.

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