EDMONTON — Suddenly, with a cap dump and a retirement, the Edmonton Oilers are awash cap space. And needs, don’t forget needs.
They have plenty of those as well.
With the confirmation that Duncan Keith will retire, foregoing the $1.5 million owed to him and relieving Edmonton of his $5.54 million cap hit — and the trading of Zack Kassian and his $3.2 million cap hit — Edmonton heads into the July 13 free-agent deadline with money to spend.
With defenceman Oscar Klefbom and, we’ll assume, goalie Mike Smith on LTIR next season, the Oilers take $20.57 million in cap space into the summer, according to puckpedia.com.
As a polarizing deal that cost Edmonton very little in salary ($2.1 million), but one season of Keith’s full $5.54 million cap hit comes to a close, many fans just could not separate Keith’s on-ice work from his off-ice cap hit. They never warmed to the player, even though he was a pillar during the playoffs.
My opinion?
What I saw was a second-pairing defenceman who was adept enough to take on a big piece of Darnell Nurse’s ice time and match-ups when Nurse hobbled through the playoffs with a torn hip flexor. Keith played above his weight class as Edmonton won two rounds in the playoffs, and we watched rookie Evan Bouchard improve steadily the moment he was paired with Keith.
Keith’s legacy in Edmonton will be playing 19:40 per night as the Oilers made it to their first Conference Final in 16 years, and the mark he leaves on a protégé in Bouchard, who will take what he learned from a walk-in Hall of Famer and man the Edmonton blue-line for the foreseeable future.
Keith is gone now, and the haters will surely disapprove of whomever GM Ken Holland brings in to replace him. That’s life in a Canadian market.
But $20.5 million is a fair bit of cash, even when you consider Holland’s needs. Let’s start where Holland will start on July 13 — in goal:
• With Washington trading Vitek Vanecek, and the Maple Leafs shedding cap space in Petr Mrazek, the goalie market got crowded fast. Then Detroit snapped up Ville Husso. Yikes!
At 32, we would be wary of an oft-injured Darcy Kuemper. If he gets hurt a lot now, how can you sign him through his 37th birthday? Meanwhile, Ottawa would eat some salary on Matt Murray — who has only two seasons left at $6.25 — but between the concussions and the lack of recent success, how much goalie is left there?
Jack Campbell, for my money, is the guy the Oilers should target, but judging by Toronto GM Kyle Dubas’ comments Friday, he is thinking the same thing. And really, Campbell is OK — but do you want to marry up with a five-year deal to this goalie?
Having the money to spend, and finding the proper target to spend it on are, this summer, two entirely different things.
• We’ll call this an Evander Kane replacement, even though at this time no one can rule out Kane signing to return to the Oilers.
Connor Brown in Ottawa is Target 1A. He would be a perfect fit on Connor McDavid’s left side, but Brown hits his UFA summer a year from now. If he scores 33 with McDavid, how do you afford him a year from now? That’s a consideration.
Claude Giroux would bring experience, a strong faceoff option, and at age 34 could likely be had short-term. He had 65 points last season, another eight in 10 playoff games, and could be the Top 6 right-winger that folks wanted Jesse Puljujarvi to become. I like this player, at the right price.
Kane? We know he fits, but what’s up with that arbitration case between he and the San Jose Sharks? Can anyone wait for that to be resolved, and miss out on the market?
• Who replaces Keith?
Do you sign Brett Kulak and go into the season with a left side consisting of Nurse, Kulak and rookie Philip Broberg? With Cody Ceci, Tyson Barrie and Bouchard on the right side?
Or do you need one more bigger, veteran, genuine second pairing D-man in that mix? The aforementioned group is a little light for my tastes, and could use a third-pairing guy with some heft. Do you trade Barrie for that player, or keep a solid puck-mover and push back your decision to the Trading Deadline?
The problem is, for teams in LTIR the Deadline is a difficult place to do business.
Holland will have to build his team in the summertime and hope he spends well.
• Does Edmonton need a big fourth-line winger to replace some of Kassian’s duties? Many think that size and physicality is outdated, but any team with Edmonton’s centres needs size on the wings.
Big and good beats small and good every time.
