Sometimes you just hope next year is better

I'm very much not a fan of Aberg in the top 9. He's a decent checking forward for the 4th line thanks to his speed, but he hasn't offered much else to the team thus far. I'd love to see him train in the offseason to become a PK specialist similar to Grabner.

The Niemi > Montoya swap is more or less just shuffling deck chairs on a sinking ship. I do think that Niemi has potential to be a better backup, but besides his stint in Montreal, he hasn't been an NHL goaltender all year. Probably pass on that one. I think you've underpaid Slepyshev and overpaid Benning: sounds like there's some KHL interest in the Russian winger - he'll probably want around $1M and guaranteed NHL time if he's going to stay in the big leagues. Benning hasn't warranted a significant raise thus far in his career, but you're off by only around $600k so it's not a huge deal.

I think had you found a way to sign a guy like Grabner for the top 9 I'd be a bigger fan of the Nash signing. He's gotten to be a bit slow, but on a one year deal it's not really an issue. Something worth considering is shaving salary where possible ($75k on Caggiula, $125k on Strome, $300k on Nurse, $600k on Benning, Stanton>Gryba, keep Callahan in the AHL - all of which frees up around $2M), and opting for Maroon at less than $3M and using the available space to make a pitch on Grabner. He'd help more with the PK (which you haven't exactly addressed).

I do think this AGM falls onto the formula the Oilers brass were hoping for at the start of the 2017-18 season: hope Talbot can play great and everybody takes a step forward. I applaud you on keeping both of Klefbom and RNH - it's something the team desperately needs to do unless the deal is too good to pass up - but there isn't enough direct change to suggest that this team is a playoff contender next season. An injury to any of the big 3 centers on the team and the offense crumbles, and the defense is still piss-poor for a team trying to go all the way.