What's the attraction with Hutton? You could get a better goalie in free agency for less.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic team and a Cup contender for sure.

Looks good. I’m not into the sens deal would prefer to keep russell for the final year of his deal as a depth guy but overall I like what you’ve done good job.

I would not buy out Neal tho try retaining 1.9 on his deal that puts him under 4 million and as a pp specialist brings decent value. Buyout adds term to dead cap.

Yup. McDavid and Lafreniere.. I hope that happens for really life. It looks good though! Buyout wouldn’t be my first option, for Neal but if needed then I would do it. I would rather try and trade him.

as an oiler fan, if ottawa offers me 3 and 5 for 1st I would accept. Having Mcdavid and draisaitl I would rather have 2 impact player than 1. Stutzle AND askarov (future #1 goaly)

Forget Laf, you're beating the hawks. As a hawks fan, please beat us

Even 50% retained with a mid round pick coming back I would consider, depending on how the savings was spent, of course.

It's more Thompson I'm after. I think there's a worthwhile reclamation project there. I don't think Khaira can be dumped without taking some sort of money back with how tight budgets are going to be.

Holland has a thing for older goalies: I'm sold that he's targetting either Howard or bringing Smith back. Hutton's just a compromise where Khaira can be dumped simultaneously.



Playing Russell means taking icetime away from two young defenders that are already likely better than Kris. It means not getting enough games in for Lagesson to qualify him for expansion.

Jones' ability to play his off side allows the three young defenders to work as a rotation. There's no room for Russell without keeping Bouchard in the AHL. Winning the Alexis lottery means that the Oilers are in win-now mode for the next 3 seasons while he's still on his ELC.



Does that lineup need a power play specialist? Where would Neal even fit on the power play given the setup I've shown?

I don't think a trade involving a retained Neal that Edmonton wins exists. Again, cap is tight right now, and there should be enough progression to the cap such that by year 4 this team won't notice the dead hit from his buyout.



See above.

Keeping Neal likely means dumping Chiasson and running a 22-man roster: given that he's French as well and could help Alexis adjust, I think Chiasson should stay. He provides just as much power play value as Neal does anyways.

Taking Askarov in the top-5 is a really bad idea. And I'm not a fan of Stutzle either.

Gotta spend the savings very smart to justify dead cap just avoid adding additional term. Retain vs bought retaining wins 100% of the time in my opinion. Off the books sooner.

then you could get rossi, pefetti, drysdale byfield if kings get stutzle...

If it was such a good idea, why would Ottawa do it?

You realize that $1.9M becomes pretty insignificant after that third year? In four seasons the cap is likely going to be $10M+ higher than it is right now and guys like McDavid, Draisaitl, and an extended RNH are already going to be on the books.

If Kassian and Jones are lost to expansion, the only major contracts Edmonton has to manage before Lafreniere's ELC expires will be extending RNH and Yamamoto in Y1,extending Bouchard in Y2, and figuring out what to do with Athanasiou and Nurse.

McLeod and the likely duo of Konovalov/Rodrigue offer cheap solutions to the #3C and goaltending departments during this time. Lavoie is likely a cost-effective #3RW. The extra years of dead cap mean zilch when considering all aspects.

because dorion is rock hard thinking about lafi! ahahah

Not sure where you're getting that from. The cap is likely to remain flat for the next 2 years and show only a small bump in year 3, like this:

2020-21: $81.5M
2021-22: $81.5M
2022-23: $82.5M

At least that's according to this guy, but maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about. Assuming he does, please explain how the cap is going to jump $9M or more in 2023-24.

The aspect I’m not understanding is if want to remove neal now for cap purposes the options are slim. Retaining vs buyout. Either way your stuck in short term adding to dead cap but atleast with retaining you regain that cap flexibility sooner.

Seattle joining the league and the new tv deal? Like is the money the NHL getting from that not going to increase operating revenues substantially??

The Seattle expansion money is not included in HRR, so there won't be any direct gain from expansion.

It remains to be seen what the new TV deal would look like, but it's likely to cut escrow way back rather than lift the cap by a significant amount.

Edited to add: both items occur within the timeframe of the calculations I provided a link for, so I'd assume they've been factored in already.

Really hope some other than the oilers get the pick. They just have got 4 firsts in the last 10 years! It seems unfair.

The only reason the Oilers ended up with McDavid and why they would end up with Lafreniere in this scenario is because the league pissed around with the lottery formats because Edmonton got the three-peat.

The only people you could blame would be whoever designed the lottery.

I agree, I want the Oilers drafting 31st.

I hate this matchup the most! I don’t want either one of you guys to lose!

Ya, haha. I’m hoping the leafs can draft 31st as well.

hutton is the worst goalie in the league
soderberg probably gets more money elsewhere