The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes are an interesting case study.

It took years for the “computer boys” to get that team to the promised land, and while so much has been made about the analytically driven moves the organization has made over the years, their ability to identify market inefficiencies is what drove them over the top.

You can go up and down their roster and see it. Despite a long list of very good players, they don’t have any true superstar-calibre players in the way other Cup-contending teams have. They don’t have the Aleksander Barkovs or the Matthew Tkachuks that helped lift the Florida Panthers to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles, or the Jack Eichels who helped Vegas win in 2023, or the Nathan MacKinnons and Cale Makars that lifted Colorado in 2022.

And when you look at the Hurricanes, it’s easy to see they’re a team that’s only now entering their Cup-contention window. As of July 11, they still have $9.8 million in cap space and all of their own draft picks in the years to come.

That surplus of cap space is thanks to some of the signings they’ve made over the years. They have no player making over $10 million per year, and only four players making over $7 million, but they have multiple key pieces on long-term deals at very reasonable cap hits.

Look no further than Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake, both of whom are signed for the next eight years, making $6 million and $5.12 million, respectively. They made up two-thirds of a second line that was crucial to the Hurricanes’ success, as with a $3.17-million Taylor Hall on their wing, they outscored the opposition 18-7 at five-on-five in 211 minutes, while outright dominating the pace of play.

Both players signed their contracts last July ahead of last season, and at the time, neither had broken out as NHLers. Stankoven, 23, had shown well, scoring 20 goals and 52 points in 102 games. There’s no denying the Hurricanes looked at him as an important player, as he was one of the main pieces they received when they traded Mikko Rantanen to the Dallas Stars. Stankoven would score 21 goals and 44 points in 81 regular-season games last year, and 11 goals and 16 points in 19 playoff games.

Blake, 22, was just coming off his rookie season, where he scored 17 goals and 34 points in 80 games. A fourth-round pick, Carolina took somewhat of a gamble on him in signing such a long deal, but it didn’t take long for it to pay off, as he racked up 22 goals and 53 points in 81 regular-season games, adding seven goals and 20 points in 19 playoff games.

Now, Carolina has two major pieces locked up long-term on extremely reasonable deals.

It’s the reason why the Oilers should be prioritizing signing extension-eligible Matt Savoie to a similar long-term deal.

Savoie just wrapped his rookie season, putting up 18 goals and 37 points in 82 games, and was the undeniable top prospect in the Oilers’ system heading into this campaign. This year can easily be split into two portions for Savoie: pre-Olympics, and post-Olympics.

Through his first 58 games, he had averaged just 13:50 in ice time, buried down the lineup as he adjusted to his first season in the NHL. He chipped in some offence, scoring nine goals and 18 points, and was a minus-2 over that stretch. The on-ice results were modest, as at five-on-five the Oilers controlled 48.6 per cent of the shot attempt share, and 47.6 per cent of the expected goal share, despite being outscored 32-27. The team had a 97.5 PDO with him on the ice, that included an abysmal .889 save percentage that pulled some of those metrics down.

Out of the Olympic break, Savoie popped when moved up the lineup alongside Connor McDavid, with whom he spent 63 per cent of his five-on-five ice time with down the stretch run of the season. He scored nine goals and 19 points in 24 games, surpassing his first-half production.

One knock on Savoie compared to Stankoven and Blake was much weaker isolated impacts. According to HockeyViz, Savoie drove play at the rate of a low-end fourth-liner, whereas Stankoven was at the rate of a second-liner, and Blake impacted at the rate of a low-end first-line player. Those, of course, are over the full season, and I’d be curious to know how much stronger Savoie’s impacts post-Olympics were than pre-Olympics.

With impending changes to the collective bargaining agreement coming, the Oilers would have until Sept. 16 to sign Savoie to an extension that carries and eight-year term, but what could that contract look like? Evolving Hockey projects that contract would carry a $4.8 million cap hit, while it would be a $4.344 million cap hit on a seven-year deal.

Objectively, those numbers feel more than fair when compared to Blake’s play leading up to his extension. Both had similar offensive numbers prior to being extension-eligible, and Blake’s on-ice impacts were significantly better.

The big question, of course, is whether or not Savoie would be willing to sign such a deal in a rising cap world.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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