How can the Oilers get cap compliant?
It’s been a while since we’ve done a What Would You Do Wednesday (Saturday edition), hasn’t it? In case you’ve forgotten, this feature is all about your ideas and how you would solve an Oilers-related problem if the decision were in your hands. And with the season drawing closer and the Oilers still over the salary cap, I’m just asking for your best plan of attack on how to make this problem go away.
According to the folks at PuckPedia, the Oilers are currently sitting at $354K over the salary cap with Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg still to sign new deals. Even though I’d suspect neither of those players will get bank-breaking contracts, it doesn’t take a mathematician in a room full of abacuses to figure out that the math doesn’t work. The Oilers need to shed some salary, and that’s why I’m asking you to put on your general manager’s cap to come up with a few ideas on how to make it happen
But before I can expect you to decide on how the Oilers should manage their salary cap situation, you’ll need all of the information. As it stands this morning, here’s where Edmonton is at:
- With the $3.55 million in bonus overages and $3.016 million in dead space, the Oilers are $354K over the $88.354 million salary cap.
- The Oilers have 21 players signed to their active roster, with Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg being the two notable RFAs.
- If we’re talking UFAs, the Oilers have Sam Gagner and Adam Erne as pending free agents.
Now that you’ve got some details on where the Oilers are with the salary cap, let’s look at the options for making the money work. Are you ready? Of course you are.
TRADE CANDIDATES
One possible route the Oilers could take is to trade someone off the roster. There aren’t many candidates to be traded, but two of the possible options would probably be Cody Ceci and/or Brett Kulak.
- Cody Ceci – $3.25 million for one more year
- Brett Kulak – $2.75 million for two more years
From my perspective, I would hate to see the Oilers trade Brett Kulak because of his versatility and ability to move up and down in the order if needed. When it comes to Cody Ceci, it feels like Oilers fans have been trading him for the last three seasons, but a deal to move on never seems to materialize. Is moving him even a real option at this point?
WAIVER CANDIDATES
Another route you could take is to waive a handful of players to try to chip away at the salary cap hole in aggregate. Here are some of the candidates who could fit that bill.
- Josh Brown – $1 million
- Derek Ryan – $900,000
- Troy Stecher – $787,000
- Corey Perry – $1.15 million
It’s worth noting that putting this list together doesn’t necessarily mean that waiving these guys is likely to happen. As much as Corey Perry being waived doesn’t seem like something the Oilers would do, he is the highest-paid fourth liner they have, which is why I put him up here as an option.
