In part 1, I examined the Oilers current roster situation and figured out how much cap space they have to work with if they want to acquire a scoring forward and be cap compliant upon activating Sekera from the LTIR. Here’s part 2 where I reveal who the Oilers can afford.
To review, the Oilers currently are $1.4625 million over the cap. In order to activate Sekera and add a scoring winger, they need to move two forwards and one defenceman (13 F and 8 D ratio). The goal of this exercise is to figure out how much cap space the Oilers can create to acquire a scoring forward and to see which scoring forwards the Oilers could target.
There are few teams that are far enough out of the race that we can reasonably call them sellers. There are also some players being rumored to be available from teams that are in the mix for a playoff spot still. Remember that the cap hit of a player going to a new team gets smaller by the day, which is why most teams wait until closer to the deadline to make their moves. However, time is not a luxury that the Oilers have in a tight playoff race. The Oilers would be smart to use the break wisely and wait until February 1 (the day before their first game after the break) to acquire their scoring winger.
Here is a list of the cap hits that each of the potential scoring winger acquisitions would have if the Oilers were to acquire them on February 1st:
Rentals:
Stone ($7.35M)- $2.569M
Duchene ($6M)- $2.097M
Panarin ($6M)- $2.097M
Nyqvist ($4.75M)- $1.660M
Johansson ($4.583M, M-NTC)- $1.602M
Zuccarello ($4.5M)- $1.573M
Simmonds ($3.975M)- $1.389M
Silfverberg ($3.75M)- $1.310M
Brassard ($5M – $3M for PIT)- $1.048M
Dzingel ($1.8M)- $0.629M
Ferland ($1.75M)- $0.612M
Wingers With Term:
Schenn (1x$5.125M)- $1.791M
Kreider (1x$4.625M, M-NTC)- $1.616M
Toffoli (1x$4.6M)- $1.608M
Bjugstad (2x$4.1M)- $1.433M
Coyle (1x$3.2M)- $1.118M
I speculated that the defenceman that would be most likely to move during the break would be Benning. The three forwards that are the most likely to move would be Spooner, Rieder, and Yamamoto. There are three combinations that involve two of those forwards being moved along with Benning. In order to see who could be acquired during the break, the transactions involving any players moving out will be calculated as if they were to occur on February 1. Here is how much cap space each of the three combinations would leave the Oilers with on February 1:
Yamamoto, Rieder, Benning: $0.7945 million
Spooner, Rieder, Benning: $0.9835 million
Spooner, Yamamoto, Benning: $1.1785 million
In any of the three scenarios, Dzingel would be the player with the highest cap hit that they could acquire on February 1st. The Oilers would have to make their trades a bit earlier in the break if they want to acquire Brassard or Coyle. The players that the Oilers could definitely take on before the break ends would be Dzingel or Ferland.
We know that the Oilers have been reportedly interested in Zuccarello. With $1.1785 million in cap space, the Oilers could acquire Zuccarello on February 18. In the second scenario, they would have to move Benning one day earlier in order to acquire Zuccarello at the deadline. In the first scenario, they would have to move Manning on January 23 instead of Benning just to be able to acquire Zuccarello at the deadline.
My point is that if the Oilers want to acquire a scoring winger…
Click HERE if you’d like to hear how Ryan (@edmoildrops) thinks the Oilers would be able to acquire that elusive scoring winger without breaking the bank.
