How much would it cost the Edmonton Oilers to buyout Trent Frederic

After signing a massive 8-year, $30.8M contract this offseason, Frederic has not performed anywhere near expectations. Coach Knoblauch has even benched the new signing a few times - once totalling just 5 minutes of ice time.

The raw numbers are ugly. Frederic's ice time is declining, he's on pace for just 6 points this season, and he has a -7 rating. So, how could the Oilers move on?

No team would be interested in taking on Frederic for a 8 years in his current state, so a trade is off the table. But the Oilers should be looking at options so this contract doesn't hurt them so much in a win-now window.

Many Oilers fans have raised the potential of a buyout this offseason. It'll be an expensive payout, but it would offer the Oilers some cap relief.

Incidentally, Frederic currently appears as the 3rd most popular buyout candidate in the NHL according to PuckPedia - only behind Darnell Nurse and Elias Pettersson.

If the Oilers were to buyout Frederic, they'd receive some meaningful relief in critical years, but they'd also have to pay Frederic until the 2039-40 season.

Following PuckPedia's buyout calculator, the Oilers would save less than $2M per season until 2033-34. At that point, they'd be paying him $821K for the next 7 seasons.

The Oilers will also have to consider the fact that they're still paying for Jack Campbell's buyout until the 2029-30 season. It'd be extremely tough to have so much dead cap space in a few critical seasons.

At the end of the day, Frederic's performance the rest of the season will dictate how desperately the team feels they need to move on from him. If he continues to be basically a ghost on the ice, they may have to take the plunge.

The real questions for Oilers management will be: do they think Frederic will be able to improve in the future, and is there better and cheaper options available to help them win now? If there's new options and Frederic doesn't improve, the buyout could happen.