Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I would highly doubt they'd buy out Koskinen. He had a good regular season and bailed out the Oilers a lot, its not his fault that he developed PTSD from all the pucks flying at him during epic this guy scored style moments. Plus they're losing Smith and if they drop Koskinen what do they have in the chute?
Skinner was supposed to be the next big thing, but he barely looks like an AHL goalie and is far from ready. I guess they could go out and sign a free agent starter at 5 mil but then you need to add on Koskinens buy out and that's an expensive proposition.
As for Neal and the 20 goal thing. They're welcome to keep him, he can't be trusted 5v5 at all. Eventually the jerk that he is, well its going to explode in that dressing room.
He had a 4 goal game in October, and 2 goals the game before it. So out side of those two games he scored 13 goals, but wait he had a 3 goal game in December.. 12 of his goals were on the powerplay. So he had 7 5v5 goals and he was minus 20. Some players have warts. James Neal is a massive puss filled boil of 5v5 ineptness.
And a team that close to the cap really can't spend 6 million dollars a year to be a pp winger, that's just stupid spending. Like really dumb.
Again though, I doubt the Oilers buy them out, a team with almost 10% of its cap space spent in dead space is dead in the water.
|
I 100% agree with you and if I was running this team I would be going with a patient approach. I'd probably trade Nurse and Nuge for youth and picks and try to build from within. But the issue with this is the Oilers have been doing this for 10 years and ownership and fans have had enough and the pressure to turn it around NOW is at an all time high.
I see a guy like Murray being available and I see the Oilers thinking he could be the answer. He likely gets 6+ mil. I also only see them having room for him if they buy out someone or dump someone like Nurse. Goaltending was a huge question mark against Chicago.
Then again so was their D. I see them dumping Nurse as he was the whipping boy after the Chicago series. But they need d so I can't see them dumping Nurse without adding someone back.
I fully expect the Oilers make a splash this summer and they need cap space to do it. I can't wait to see how they manage it.
Benning and AA need qualify offers or they become UFAs. That is about 5 mil of their 9.7 million cap space. I believe Benning is worth keeping but likely gets a cap around 3 million which could drive him out of Edmonton. AA cost them a 2nd so can't see why they wouldn't try to resign. Likely around $3.5 million. If they spend $6.5 on those 2 that leaves 3 ish. Still have Bear and Bear's numbers are comparable to Rasmus. They could sign him short term but likely at least $2.25 for 2 years.
Riley Sheahan was their best faceoff guy on the PK. Typically on their first PK unit. Hard to resign him for less than Archibald got. I bet they try and keep him and likely around 2 million.
All this adds up to over the cap by around $1 million. If they were to dump Nurse it gives them $4 mil to spend and 20 guys. Still not a lot to upgrade anywhere with $4 million and as much as I dislike Nurse he still a loss to their blueline.
Maybe Chaisson or Russell get bought out but that has little impact on what they can do and you still need a body at $700k at minimum to replace them.
They could also explore Neal and their first to get rid of his contract. But when you don't have a 2nd or a 4th once again that options doesn't look overly good either.
But they are desperate so I can't wait to see how this shapes up.