Oilers need to cut two veterans immediately after Olympic break, says insider

The Oilers are right up against the salary cap now, which has prompted the move to send rookie forward Matt Savoie down to the AHL despite his strong season so far. It’s not likely the Oilers want to keep him there, so they should be looking at clearly cap space elsewhere.

According to insider Jim Matheson, the Oilers will need more financial re-structuring with Adam Henrique coming off LTIR with a $3M cap hit. By merit, the two veterans that should be cut from the team to save cap space are Andrew Mangiapane and Mattias Janmark.

Additionally, Matheson believes Samanski could earn his way back to the Oilers this year.

For now the Oilers have sent down Matthew Savoie to clear enough cap space to activate Henrique, but that can’t be their long-term plan. Savoie has played more games with better results than both Janmark and Mangiapane.

The 33-year old Mattias Janmark carries a $1.45M cap hit this season, and has scored only 1 goal.

The coach clearly loves him, but he just doesn’t bring enough to warrant a roster spot at that cap hit - he’s not even a primary penalty killer anymore. Janmark has limited trade protection, so they should be able to move him.

Andrew Mangiapane is an easy pick to be shipped off the roster, as he’s been a frequent healthy scratch since the new year.

Moving Mangiapane’s $3.6M cap hit to bring back Savoie and add more players at the trade deadline is a necessity for the Oilers at this point.

Moving either of these two veterans is a much better use of roster resources than sending down good rookies. Hopefully the Oilers are able to complete these moves soon, and bring back Savoie and Samanski.

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