Put Koskinen on waivers someone might grab him

buyout is best

Buyout Neal

Try to trade Koskinen with retention — maybe a team like PHi or NJD could use a 1-year backup. May have to add a pick too. Worth a shot at least.

I would try trading Koskinen, but I don't know if anyone would want him.

buying out Koskinen would be dumb, he has a year left why would you want to extend that dead money?
people forget he dwarfed smiths numbers in 19-20

Or try putting him on waivers

I could see a deal with NSH if Rinne retires. Something like Arvidsson for Koskinen (a bit of retention), Lavoie, and picks or something.

Basically, he may be able to be squeezed into a bigger deal with a few clubs.

That is one scary looking D-core. I'd be keeping Russell with his smaller cap hit. And considering you still have $10mil in cap space I'd be looking at another UFA.

Many people on CapFriendly (and this isn't limited to the Oiler fanbase) are morons.

Giving away a first-round pick instead of cutting a team’s cap overhead by $2 million is just moronic.

Therefore, it is a logical inevitability that some people will suggest giving away the 19th overall selection in this year's draft to move Neal's contract instead of buying it out.

The other day, I had one idiot defend that strategy (when I disputed it) by saying “If you can’t remember the deals near identical to this done at the Vegas expansion that’s on you.” Of course, as most people whose IQ is measurable in three digits know, not one of the trades in 2017 by which teams gave away first-rounders had any cap-consideration component; they were all intended for the sole purpose of dictating which young players were NOT selected by Las Vegas.

I hope that I see a LOT of your fellow Edmonton adherents chiming in on your side on this subject.

Yeah, I really don't understand the hate. He's been ok-to-good over the past 2 seasons, aside from the start of this season when Holland screwed up the goalie situation and Koskinen was forced to play 12 games in 24 days - a workload that no goalie can stand up under.

Among the 62 goalies (31 teams x 2) to play at least 1350 minutes at 5v5 over the past 2 years, Koskinen ranks 44th in SV% and 19th in HDSV%. It's interesting to look at the list, actually:

SV% (SA/60)
39. Andersen: .917 (29.65)
40. Demko: .917 (32.11)
41. Georgiev: .917 (31.03)
42. Gibson: .916 (31.07)
43. Rittich: .916 (30.34)
44. Koskinen: .915 (32.34)
45. Korpisalo: .915 (29.28)

Many fans want to buyout Koskinen and then spend a huge amount of assets to bring in a guy like Gibson or Korpisalo, both of whom faced fewer shots but didn't actually perform any better than Koskinen.

HDSV% (HDSA/60) for select goalies in same range
12. Hellebuyck: .838 (8.79)
13. Khudobin: .837 (6.38)
16. Varlomov: .835 (7.31)
19. Koskinen: .833 (8.50)
21. Merzlikins: .832 (6.94)
23. Price: .831 (6.96)
24. Fleury: .829 (7.46)
26. Kuemper: .825 (6.83)

I fully acknowledge that Koskinen had a disappointing season this year, but if you take into account that (1) a good part of that was due to poor management and (2) his 2 year results are still pretty strong, it doesn't make much sense to buy him out this summer.

15 goals last year, 10 this year, $4.25M x 3 for a guy clearly in decline - why would Edmonton add a good prospect, picks and retention?

Here's what I mean: if you remove the first 12 games from the picture and run the numbers for the past 2 years, Koskinen ends up with a .920 SV% (33rd) and .843 HDSV% (11th). That's above average NHL goaltending. Why would you buyout a guy who performs above league average with normal usage? I don't think he's worth $4.5M but he's not dead weight.