The flip side of what the Canucks are getting is what the Oilers are losing. Don't the Oilers need sandpaper and secondary scoring?Hockey Widow wrote: ↑Wed Jun 25, 2025 8:51 pm https://youtu.be/zx6dw7532KM
Good listen to. Gives a perspective on Kane from Edmonton point of view.
More generally, the Oilers salary increases to Draisitl and Bouchard and McDavid (if they can keep him) is going to eat up all of the relative cost savings of an increasing cap and then some. The Oilers have always had the depth question, and while they stretched their space by getting great value from Hyman and RNH, those players declined last year and they are aging and soon their production will match their deals (no windfall). The Oilers should be relevant as long as they have 97 and the German, but they may very well leaning into the Toronto problem.
What's my point? The pipeline is dry and we've reached Peak Oil. I'm not saying they won't win a Cup, but the Cap situation is making it hard to hold serve, the age of the team is projects internal decline, and given their paucity of picks and prospects, they are quite limited as to how they patch and refresh.