Today’s Cap Hit for the Oilers is at $78.1 million, which is $1.4 million under the $79.5 million limit. The Oilers are cap compliant based on this number, which is all they needed to worry about because of the LTIR situation. It is my understanding that normally, teams need to be under the $79.5 million limit with both values (Projected Cap Hit and Today’s Cap Hit) at all times, with LTIR being an exception (although as we learned, I have been wrong in the past). Basically, the Oilers are fine cap wise now for this season, even though it took some subtracting to make it happen.
The two trades are interesting from a hockey standpoint. It was clear that Talbot wasn’t going to be re-signed after Koskinen was extended, so a trade felt inevitable. Talbot was Chiarelli’s big acquisition that was supposed to fix the goaltending. Talbot had one incredible season in 2016-17 where the Oilers made the playoffs largely because of his performance. He had runs in the second half of his first and third seasons here where he was also outstanding. However, he was just too inconsistent to be the goalie that Chiarelli hoped that he would be. He started 3 of his 4 seasons in Edmonton slowly, which put the team behind the 8-ball early each year. It’s not all his fault because the defensive play in front of him was brutal at those times, but he does wear a good portion of that. This year, he could never really get it going for any length of time.
The other trend of his that was noticeable was…
CLICK HERE if you want to find out what else was noticeable about Cam Talbot and read the rest of Ryan’s analysis on the Oilers recent and future moves as we head into the NHL trade deadline. You’re not going to want to miss the portion about Jesse Puljujarvi!
