Quote:
Originally Posted by TOfan
That may all be true, today, but there are other moves the Oilers can make, and likely will make, over the next two years. There’s usually a way.
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Maybe the Oilers can make a move but the point is without making an additional move they wouldn't have space.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Bouchard, and Nurse aren't going anywhere and those 4 are going to cost about $46M combined next year.
Possible trade chips would be Ekholm, Hyman, RNH, Arvidsson, and Henrique but generally they aren't going to want to trade what they see as "value" assets.
The only real pieces they can move to make space are Kane ($5.125M) and Kulak ($2.75M).
It's possible for sure but when you look at their lack of cap flexibility, and their lack of tradeable future assets, it makes it a tough battle for them because they have to:
- Potentially pay the cost to dump Kane / Kulak
- Pay the extra assets to have Anaheim retain 50% x 3
- Pay the cost of acquiring Gibson itself (which has been rumoured not to be cheap)