Raphael Lavoie has signed a new contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

Taking his QO instead of a league min contract makes it harder to carry him on the roster. 100k makes pretty big difference for the Oilers currently.

League min with higher AHL pay would have made more sense but I guess he is betting on himself making the roster regardless.

made great progress in the AHL this year, would bet on him playing NHL games next season

This is very disappointing.

I was very surprised to learn that it was not a minimum salary deal and even more surprised that at $100 K more than minimum, that it is not a 2 year deal. With experienced NHL utility players on PTO’s who will no doubt be fighting for their careers at camp and who will have no choice but to take minimum salary deals, he may not even see an NHL game this season.

I hope I am wrong, but no matter how well he plays he won’t be more than a 4th line winger to start, if he makes the team out of camp. And with his salary, injuries will be the only thing that gets him on the roster.

We all saw how the salary cap impacted players (Janmark) early in the season last year….

I do not think this was a smart move, this is a straight-up gamble. His Agent should be providing better advice than this for a player with zero NHL games, the strategy has to be to do anything possible to get his client on the NHL team.