Many have assumed that Kris Russell and his $4,000,000 cap hit could be on the move this off-season in order for the Oilers to open up cap room.
It looks like that isn’t the case. The Oilers’ plans look to be the opposite, actually. According to PuckPedia, the Nation Network’s salary cap source who communicates frequently with many prominent NHL agents, the Oilers and Russell are working on a contract extension.
Russell was originally signed ahead of the 2016-17 season as a late-summer, bargain-bin addition. He performed well alongside Andrej Sekera on the team’s second pairing and ended up getting a four-year contract worth $4,000,000 annually. We’re now heading into the final season of that aforementioned deal.
Though he’s often maligned by the advanced stats crowd for having poor underlying numbers, there’s no denying that Russell has been a warrior for the Oilers over the years. He kills penalties, blocks shots, and never takes a shift off. There’s some value to having a player like that on your team, especially when you get into the playoffs.
If Russell is used in a bottom-pairing or extra defenceman role, that’s perfectly fine. Where you start to have trouble is when you’re paying him $4,000,000 to be a second-pairing guy, which he isn’t. We don’t yet know if the rumour is accurate or what the extension would look like, but this would be fine so long as it’s cheap and short-term.
For example, Cody Ceci got a one-year deal worth $1,250,000 and Derek Forbort got a one-year deal worth $1,000,000. That’s the kind of deal I would hope to see for Russell. The highest I would go is the same deal that Mark Borowiecki got in Nashville, $2,000,000 over two years.

***UPDATE***