How much cap space Edmonton Oilers have going into free agency
The Edmonton Oilers have kicked off the offseason with a couple of big contract extensions.
Both Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy were signed to five-year contracts this week, totalling up to a combined $40.5 million. That will affect the amount of space the Oilers will have for free agency this summer, which is set to open next week on July 1.
GM Stan Bowman still has a few high-profile holes to fill in on this Oilers roster this summer, including adding another top-six forward and fixing the goaltending situation. Those will not be easy tasks, and the cap space needed to accomplish those goals could wind up being quite high.
The NHL’s cap ceiling will rise to $104 million this summer, marking an increase of $8.5 million from last year’s cap ceiling of $95.5 million. This will afford the Oilers a little bit more wiggle room to work with, but not a ton.
So, how much cap space is Edmonton working with ahead of free agency? Let’s take a closer look…
Crunching the numbers
The Oilers entered the offseason with about $16 million in cap space to play around with.
That number was expected to fall as Bowman decided to bring back players ahead of free agency. With both Dickinson and Murphy signing on the dotted line, it cut the Oilers’ space by more than half that.
Those two contracts add up to a combined cap hit of $8.1 million. Jake Walman is also set to start a seven-year contract that carries a $7-million cap hit, which will also eat into Edmonton’s cap space.
According to PuckPedia, that will leave the Oilers with just $7.4 million in available cap space to spend this summer, limiting Bowman’s ability to make significant additions to Edmonton’s roster.
Pending free agents
There could still be more signings coming to the Alberta capital before free agency opens.
Dickinson and Murphy were seen as the two big pending free agents for the Oilers, and now that they are out of the way, Bowman can shift attention to some other unsigned players.
Two players expected to get raises on their next contracts are Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen. The former is coming off a 20-goal season after signing a bargain one-year deal with the Oilers, while the latter is a fan favourite that struggled through injury woes this past year, but turned in an impressive playoff performance.
NHL insider David Pagnotta reported earlier this month that Roslovic is expected to test free agency.
“It sounds like Jack Roslovic will be hitting the free agent [market] next month,” Pagnotta wrote.
There has also been speculation that Kapanen will do the same.
Edmonton will also need to make a decision on UFA goalie Connor Ingram, as well as RFAs Spencer Statsney and Colton Dach. Adam Henrique is another pending free agent, but Pagnotta has also said it’s unlikely that he will return to the Oilers.
It remains to be seen if the Oilers opt to use their remaining cap space to bring back any more of their pending free agents.
Ways to open up more cap space
Though the Oilers are finding themselves with not a lot of cap space before free agency, there is still hope that they can figure out ways to open up more room.
The most obvious way to open up a ton of space is to trade away Darnell Nurse and his massive $9.25-million cap hit. The veteran defenceman has already requested a trade away from Edmonton this summer, and the expectation is that multiple teams will be interested.
If Edmonton can find a way to offload the entirety of Nurse’s contract without retaining before free agency, they will have a healthy $16.6 million to play around with. That could give Bowman enough room to bring in a starting goaltender while adding another top-end forward to the Oilers’ lineup.
Edmonton could also opt to retain a bit of money on Nurse to help maximize a return and open up cap space at the same time.