Edmonton Oilers sign former Oil Kings star Lazar to cheap one-year deal
The Edmonton Oilers recouped some forward depth on the second day of free agency.
It’s been a bit of a strange offseason for the Oilers. It started with a boatload of subtractions to the forward group, with all of Evander Kane, Viktor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, and Connor Brown leaving town, and now work to replace those players is underway.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman signed middle-six winger Andrew Mangiapane late on Tuesday night and then followed it up on Wednesday morning by signing former Edmonton Oil Kings star Curtis Lazar.
The 30-year-old Lazar played with the New Jersey Devils last season and has inked a one-year contract with Edmonton with a league-minimum cap hit of $775,000.
Return of the Kingā¼ļøš
Former @EdmOilKings star Curtis Lazar is coming back to Edmonton as the #Oilers have signed the forward to a one-year contract with an average annual value of $775,000. pic.twitter.com/NFi1WvoW4G
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) July 2, 2025
It’s a solid contract for the Oilers, despite Lazar coming off a bit of a lacklustre season with the Devils. He scored just two goals and five points through 48 games last season, but he managed to do a lot of other things outside of scoring.
Lazar is a solid faceoff man, carrying a 51% win rate last year, and has proven to be a decent enough penalty-killer, which is something the Oilers desperately need going into the new season. Although his scoring is down, it’s worth noting that he’s just one season removed from scoring seven goals and 25 points.
It’s not a ton of scoring, but that would be more than servicable on the fourth line.
There is essentially no risk to the Oilers in this type of deal. The best-case scenario is that Lazar becomes a stable and productive fourth-line player on this team, helping to shelter a rookie like Noah Philp. The worst-case scenario is that he either becomes Edmonton’s 13th forward or is buried in the AHL as a call-up option.
Either way, he should provide some use for the Oilers at pennies on the dollar, which is exactly the kind of player the team needs going into a new season with not a lot of cap space to play with.