Edmonton Oilers Talk: “I wouldn’t expose someone else to keep Lagesson.” Says Oilers Pundit

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The Athletic

Oilers cap primer: Maxing out LTIR, how Josh Archibald complicates things and why Philip Broberg makes the cut

Archibald turns 29 on Wednesday and has one year and $1.5 million left on his contract. Barring a change, he’s ticketed for injury reserve or long-term injury reserve. Which one?
It would be most beneficial to start the season with Stalock and Archibald on IR — which they can do right now — and be as close to $4.167 million (Klefbom’s cap hit) over the cap as possible.
When they’re declaring the opening lineup, the tighter they are to being $4.167 million over the cap, the better.
If the Oilers can wait until after submitting their roster before adding Stalock and Archibald to LTIR, their respective $785,000 and $1.5 million salaries would be added to the LTIR pool established on their opening roster submission.
That means they can exceed the cap by roughly $6 million…
If Broberg isn’t part of the opening roster submission and is later recalled, and there is not $850,000 available in the performance-bonus-LTIR pool, he will count $1,713,334 ($863,334 salary plus $850,000 in bonuses) against the Oilers’ available cap space.
…if players with bonuses aren’t on the season-opening roster, their bonuses are added to their cap hit if they’re ever recalled during the season.
However, having Broberg on the roster to start the season gives the Oilers an extra $850,000 in bonus pool money.
I’m told that, as of right now, the Oilers want to be conservative on waiving players.
The smart money on defence is William Lagesson hitting the waiver wire unless the Oilers want to keep eight blueliners (nine if you include Broberg initially).
If McLeod is the player off the team to make way for Broberg, expect the demotion to be brief. Upon McLeod’s potential return, the Oilers would still have additional room in the bonus pool because his bonuses are less than Broberg’s.

BLH’s Thoughts: More or less what you’ve got to know is that there might be some paper transactions before game one of the regular season to maximize any salary cap advantages the club has. Also, William Lagesson, Tyler Benson, and Ryan McLeod might be sacrificed in one way or another.

So, don’t get your panties in a bunch if you see some questionable roster moves this week.

Oilersnation

Ten Tuesday Thoughts…

I don’t see how Seattle is going to make the playoffs. Do you?
Connor McDavid is getting more comfortable expressing his views on the game. He isn’t loud or brash, but as the league’s brightest star he is starting to voice his opinion more often… Good for him.
Playing McDavid with Leon Draisaitl for stretches in the regular season is a good idea… Edmonton has enough depth now that in the playoffs McDavid and Draisaitl should only play 10% of their 5×5 time together like Crosby and Malkin did when they went consecutive Cup Finals early in their careers.
Brendan Perlini is not Ty Rattie or Tomas Jurco. He is bigger, faster and a much more proven NHL scorer than either of those two were when they had productive preseasons with the Oilers in 2018 and 2019.
I’m curious to see how the Flames season goes. They don’t have a lot of team speed from what I’ve seen. That will be an issue in the regular season.
Tippett said the Benson-McLeod-Sceviour line will play on Thursday. I believe they need to be quite good if they hope to beat out the Perlini-Shore-Turris trio for a spot in the opening night roster.
I believe Ryan McLeod will be more impactful as the season progresses.
I asked Tippett about Bouchard’s low TOI last game and he said that won’t be the norm… Tippett said he was trying a few different things because it was preseason.
Edmonton’s giveaways and errant passes have been their Achilles heel this preseason… I’ve actually been impressed by their team defence for long stretches of games. Their forwards are much better positionally and I feel Edmonton’s blue line as a group passes the puck better than last year.
Would Lagesson have been claimed? We’ll never know, but I don’t see why they would be worried about losing him this season. Currently he’d be #8th on their depth chart, but how much better is he than Phillip Broberg, Filip Berglund, Phil Kemp or Dmitri Samorukov when he returns in four weeks? I don’t think it is much and I wouldn’t expose someone else to keep Lagesson.

BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t see Seattle equaling what Vegas did. So much happened around the Golden Knights and Vegas at the time that I can’t see it ever being replicated. We can’t forget about the shooting that took place in Vegas before that season begun and there was this whole “Golden Misfits” moniker going around too, plus the club took advantage of a lot of teams via trade.

I don’t know if the Flames will make the playoffs with the current core but I do think they’re going to catch a few teams by surprise with how physical they are. My question about them is, will they move Matthew Tkachuk before it’s too late and they lose him for nothing?

If the Oilers lose Lagesson via waivers, it’s probably the best thing that the Swede could ask for because he’s not getting any TOI ahead of Russell and Koekkoek. In addition to that, he’s too good for the AHL now and the club needs to develop the young defenders they’ve got down there on the left side like Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov.

Spector’s Hockey

OTTAWA SUN: Bruce Garrioch reports all eyes are on Ottawa Senators winger Brady Tkachuk… It’s believed the Senators have pitched an eight-year deal worth an annual average value of $8 million. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Friday the Tkachuk camp seeks north of $8.4 million… St. Louis broadcaster Andy Strickland said the Senators prefer a seven- or eight-year deal while Tkachuk seeks a bridge deal.

TSN: Darren Dreger talked about Morgan Rielly’s contract situation with the Toronto Maple Leafs… Asked what a hometown discount would be for Rielly, Dreger speculates it would be north of $8 million annually.