Edmonton Oilers fall in NHL contract rankings, singled out for 2 bad deals
Photo credit: Edmonton Oilers Raw
The Edmonton Oilers have long had problems of signifying bad contracts, but new NHL rankings have them in the top half of the league for the best value deals.
After getting Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard signed to recent extensions, all focus will be on signing Connor McDavid this summer - and Edmonton will have its entire core locked up for another contention window.
Edmonton Oilers ranked in top 10 of NHL for best value contracts
NHL analyst Dom Luszczyszyn at the Athletic recently ranked the entire league by surplus value to salary cap hit to find which teams have the best contracts - and ranked the Edmonton Oilers in 8th place. Last offseason, the ranked 2nd.
Luszczyszyn identified 3 drawbacks to the Oilers current contract makeup. The overarching problem is that the Oilers don't have their core locked up for the long term.
Bouchard, Nugent-Hopkins, and Hyman are set to expire within 4 years, and McDavid may sign a short term deal too. Luckily, Draisaitl is under contract for 8 more years.
The two problem contracts identified by Luszczyszyn are Darnell Nurse at $9.25M and Trent Frederic at $3.9M - both deals are pegged as overpays by his model.
The first is two major problem contracts in Darnell Nurse and Trent Frederic, both of which create a lot of negative long-term value that digs into the team's total surplus. The other is the lack of term for some of their core guys. Compared to Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay, the Oilers have significantly less money locked up in their most important players.
- Dom Luszczyszyn
- Dom Luszczyszyn
Overall though, the Oilers are still in a good enough spot to see their roster go to the Stanley Cup Finals two years in a row. For the next few seasons, the Oilers could have two players in Matthew Savoie and Ike Howard break out as stars on cheap deals too.
As long as the Oilers continue to manager their cap wisely, their level of talent should have no problem contending for a cup.
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