4 players Oilers could trade if they match both Blues offer sheets
The countdown for a decision is officially on for Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman following a pair of St. Louis Blues offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.
Edmonton can now choose to either accept a third-round and second-round draft pick in exchange for both players or match one or both offers. Broberg was offered a two-year deal worth $4.58 million, while Holloway inked a two-year contract with a $2.29 million cap hit.
If the team opts to match both offers, it will total a hefty $6.87 million against the cap.
That price tag is a problem for the Oilers as they currently have -$341,667 in cap space. If the team matched those offers without making any other moves, they would be a whopping $7 million over the cap.
This won’t do, and if the team wants to retain both players, they will be forced to make some tough decisions. Evander Kane’s $5.125 million cap hit going on LTIR will help things, but that relief could only be temporary.
A trade is among the options available to the Oilers if they want to match one or both of these offer sheets. So, who could be on the chopping block to make that happen?
Here are four candidates.
1. Cody Ceci ($3.25 million)
The player that makes the most sense to trade in a cap-clearing deal is defenceman Cody Ceci, who is entering the final season of a four-year contract that carries a cap hit of $3.25 million.
Ceci performed well enough in his first year with the Oilers, but the results have steadily become worse as time has marched forward. He’s primarily been a second-pairing defender alongside Darnell Nurse, which is a match that has not provided great on-ice results for the Oilers in either of the past two seasons.
He lost his top-four role in the playoffs and was even scratched for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. If Ceci is going to be a third-pairing defenceman on this team, the Oilers would be better off unloading the final year of his contract to someone else.
2. Brett Kulak ($2.75 million)
If the Oilers are going to balk at trading out a right-handed defenceman, the next choice when it comes to a cap-clearing move would probably be Brett Kulak.
Unlike Ceci, Kulak has actually served the Oilers pretty well in his role. He joined the Oilers at the 2022 NHL trade deadline and immediately slotted in as a dependable third-pairing defenceman.
Two seasons later, and not much has changed for Kulak. He does his job well, but he may be getting paid a bit too much for his third-pairing role and has two seasons remaining on a four-year deal that has a cap hit of $2.75 million.
Perhaps one of Edmonton’s cheaper depth options on the farm could fill it.
3. Evander Kane ($5.25 million)
Perhaps the most impactful cap dump for the Oilers would be getting rid of Kane’s contract, which still has two years remaining with a $5.25 million cap hit.
This, however, would be tough to pull off as it does appear that Kane is headed toward LTIR to start the season. That LTIR relief would go a long way in ensuring the Oilers can initially match both offer sheets, but it will cause problems if Kane is able to return to the lineup at any point during the regular season.
Kane’s stock on the Oilers has taken a tumble after a disappointing postseason, and it is likely that he will slide down to the third line if he plays for the team at all next season. Getting his contract off the books would represent significant cap savings without sacrificing a whole ton at the top of the lineup.
4. Corey Perry ($1.15 million)
The Oilers may have just signed Corey Perry to a one-year deal worth $1.15 million, but his contract now looks like one of the most moveable in the team’s bottom-six.
Trading Perry by himself is not enough to make any real room for either of the offer sheets, but if the Oilers could package him with any of the other players on this list, it would go a long way in giving the team some added cap flexibility without sacrificing much firepower.
Having Perry as a veteran presence is valuable, but he didn’t do much on the ice for the Oilers. He appeared in 19 of Edmonton’s 25 playoff games and scored a goal and three points in that span.