Oilers trade Cody Ceci to Sharks as offer sheet decision looms
The Edmonton Oilers have made yet another trade with defenceman Cody Ceci being sent to the San Jose Sharks in a move to open up more cap space.
Just hours after the team acquired Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks, Oilers GM Stan Bowman made another move, shipping Ceci to the Sharks along with a 2025 third-round pick in exchange for defenceman Ty Emberson.
🔁 TRADE 🔁
The #Oilers have acquired defenceman Ty Emberson from San Jose in exchange for defenceman Cody Ceci & a 2025 third-round draft pick.#LetsGoOilers
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) August 19, 2024
The trade removes the final year of Ceci’s $3.25 million cap hit off the books and allows the team much more flexibility when it comes to matching one or both of the offer sheets extended to young players Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway by the St. Louis Blues last week.
Emberson carries just a $925,000 cap hit and is an RFA next summer. The 24-year-old appeared in 30 games with the Sharks last season where he put up a goal and 10 points. He was initially drafted 73rd overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2018 NHL Draft.
Ceci has struggled with the Oilers over the last two seasons. He has played in a top-four role for the majority of his time in Edmonton, primarily alongside Darnell Nurse on the team’s second pair. While his first season with the Oilers yielded positive results, he wound up being a scratch in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final last season.
Considering the offer sheet situation, there is no doubt that this move was made to open up cap space. Logic would dictate that with the team acquiring a Podkolzin up front and moving a defenceman, it looks as though Edmonton could be preparing to match Broberg’s hefty offer of $4.58 million AAV over the next two seasons and potentially letting go of Holloway, whose offer sheet carried a $2.9 million cap hit for the next two years.
News on the Oilers decision is expected to come sometime tomorrow and fans will be waiting with bated breath to see what the outcome is.
For now, this move shakes up the team’s defensive core next season as the depth chart of RD now reads Evan Bouchard, Troy Stecher, and Josh Brown.