Oilers are betting favourites to sign Subban, Kessel as free agents

The Edmonton Oilers don’t have a lot of cap space remaining and may start the season shorthanded, but that hasn’t deterred bettors. 

The Oilers are frontrunners to land free agent defenceman P.K. Subban and forward Phil Kessel, according to Bodog.eu. 

“There are some players out there that I’m still kind of looking at that maybe on the bottom part of the roster,” General Manager Ken Holland said last week. “We’d like to add in somebody on a one-year deal that, you know, sort of undervalued because they didn’t get swept up in that over the first couple of weeks of free agency.”

Could that include Subban and Kessel? 

Bettors seem to think so.

Edmonton is the overwhelming favourite to land Kessel at -200. The right-shot right-wing scored just eight goals in 82 games last season for the Arizona Coyotes, and shot an NHL career-worst 4.6%. Still, the 34-year-old managed a respectable 44 assists and 52 points — which would’ve ranked fourth on the Oilers. 

The Minnesota Wild, at +700, are next in line for Kessel, who had an eight-year, $64 million contract signed in 2013 with the Toronto Maple Leafs expire this summer. 

Kessel has 956 points (399 goals, 557 assists) in 1,204 career NHL games with the Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Maple Leafs, and Boston Bruins. 

Subban, who has 467 points (115 goals, 352 assists) over 13 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, and New Jersey Devils, remains unemployed in August, and Edmonton is the favourite for his landing spot. 

The Oilers, who have five defencemen on one-way contracts and the pair of Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg still on entry-level deals, are -160 to get 34-year-old Subban, who had 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in 77 games with New Jersey last season. 

A Nashville reunion has the second-best odds at +255. 

Bettors don’t seem to be concerned over Edmonton’s lack of cap space.

The Oilers have just over $6 million in negative cap space, according to CapFriendly.