McLeod Arbitration Award Ramifications For Bouchard

Équipe: 2023-24 Oilers d'Edmonton

Date de création initiale: 24 juill. 2023

Publié: 24 juill. 2023

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

If McLeod scores the same contract Kurashev did, how do the Oilers handle Evan Bouchard and get under the cap? As I have the roster set up, there are 21 players signed and just $3.258M in cap space. If Bouchard won't accept that on a 1-year deal, Edmonton will have to make some roster changes.

Here's one option, albeit an unlikely one. The arbitration process gives Edmonton another buyout window, which can only be used on contracts larger than ~$4M. In this scenario they buyout Campbell, sign a backup for $800k or so, and are left with $5.916M to put towards Evan Bouchard. How many years does that buy? Five? Bouchard's closest comp by career GP and career points is Dougie Hamilton, who signed a 6 x $5.75M deal when he was coming off his ELC. That's $6.72M in today's dollars though (8.05%), so that's too rich for Edmonton. Dobson is at 3 x $4M, while Chabot is at 8 x 9.82%, so that's the frame essentially.

Based on these numbers:

3 x $4.0M
4 x $4.75M
5 x $5.75M (includes 1 UFA year)
6 x $6.75M (includes 2 UFA years)
7 x $7.5M (includes 3 UFA years)
8 x $8.2M (includes 4 UFA years)

I hate dead cap so it's not a path I'd recommend, but it might just end up being the best possible outcome for the team.

And anyways, Bouchard could easily live up to the ~$7.25M cap hit of his contract + the Campbell buyout.