Cody Ceci trade in play as Oilers look to clear cap space: report
The Edmonton Oilers might be forced to make a cap-clearing trade, and it sounds like they could have some suitors for defenceman Cody Ceci.
Following the St. Louis Blues sending a pair of expensive offer sheets to Oilers players Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, the team is now in a position where they may need to open up cap space to retain one or both players.
One of the most straightforward ways of opening up space is trading out players who may be making more money than they should for what they provide to the team. Daily Hive highlighted four possible players that fit this description for the Oilers, with Ceci’s $3.25 million cap hit being among the top candidates to be moved out.
A new report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast revealed that the Oilers will have the option of making a trade involving Ceci, and these offer sheets will thrust that possibility back into the conversation.
“This is going to give a whole new life to Cody Ceci trade rumours,” Friedman said. “If the Edmonton Oilers wanted to make that move, they could. They had options.”
It would make sense for the Oilers to move on from the last year of Ceci’s contract. In the three seasons he has spent with the team, the last two have yielded very poor on-ice results, and he was scratched in Game 2 of the team’s Stanley Cup Final series against the Florida Panthers in the last playoffs. Broberg, on the other hand, became an important player for the Oilers in that series, playing in all seven games.
The issue with making such a move is that it still wouldn’t clear enough space to fit Broberg on that offer sheet number. It would allow the Oilers to bring back Holloway fairly easily, but without Broberg and Ceci, Edmonton’s right-side defence is barren following Evan Bouchard.
Friedman mentioned that he isn’t sure trading Ceci is what the Oilers want to do at this juncture, and it’s most likely for that reason.
It’s going to take every ounce of creativity from Oilers GM Stan Bowman to get out of this bind, and he won’t have a lot of time to figure it out as the team is on the clock to make a decision.