Oilers forced to demote two to clear cap room for Yamamoto
Kailer Yamamoto is officially back with the Edmonton Oilers.
Two of his teammates aren’t, however.
In order to activate Yamamoto, who has missed 12 straight because of an undisclosed injury, the Oilers were forced to demote waiver-exempt rookie Dylan Holloway and Vincent Desharnais to the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League.
š #Oilers roster moves š
š¹Kailer Yamamoto has been activated from IR
šøDylan Holloway & Vincent Desharnais have been loaned to the @Condors#LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/ckNTCL27aM— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 17, 2023
Yamamoto’s cap-hit clocks in at $3.1 million. Holloway and Desharnais combine for $1,687,500. Devin Shore was also moved to the minors on Wednesday.
The moves give Edmonton just $562,000 in cap space, according to CapFriendly.
Their cap predicament had general manager Ken Holland saying any transaction at or leading into the trade deadline has to be “dollar in, dollar out.”
āWhether itās forwards or defence, itās my job to be aware of who is available and eventually what the price might be,ā Oilers general manager Ken Holland saidĀ on theĀ Got Yer BackĀ podcastĀ on February 8.
āRegardless of names, weāre dollar in, dollar out, so we start bringing in people with big cap numbers, weāre going to have to do some real gymnastics here to move people out. When youāre in [an] LTI situation like we are, itās much more difficult at the trade deadline.
āWould I like to do something? Yes, I would like to do something. Am I convinced Iām going to do something? I donāt know. Iāve got to work the phone lines and see. Eventually, youāve got to find a fit.ā
The Oilers were rumoured to be waiving forward Jesse Puljujarvi to active Yamamoto. Puljujarvi, who is a pending unrestricted free agent who makes $3 million, has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 52 games.
Holloway has played in 51 games for the Oilers this season, logging three goals and nine points in 9:35 of ice time per game. Desharnais, a defenceman, has four assists in 12 games while playing 12:09 per contest.
Yamamoto has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 31 games.
Edmonton currently holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup playoffs from the Western Conference at 66 points. They trail the Los Angeles Kings by one point for third in the Pacific Division, and the Seattle Kraken by two points for second. The Oilers also lead the Calgary Flames by five points.
Vegas leads the division at 70 points.
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