I wouldn't qualify AA at that asking price tbh, his contract was one of the reasons I think we overpaid. He's not playing like a player worth 3M+, and his 30 goal season so far is an extreme outlier. It's quite a tough situation to be in, but Holland put himself in it so idk, he's probably too stubborn and going to offer AA a QO. At least QOs are only 1 year right.
This board is so short sighted sometimes it's hilarious.
Even if you want to discount his 30 goal season (because how many players accidentally score 30 goals in this league?), the other three seasons in Detroit around that one season, he scores at a 0.24 goals per game pace (which is pretty much a 20 goal pace).
The only Oilers that have managed that in the last three years are McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent Hopkins.
Kassian averages 0.17 goals per game and a bunch of that is inflated by McDavid and Draisaitl, and he still can't crack 0.2 goals per game over a 3 year period.
This will be the same thing as Strome -- a lot of people did not want him qualified at $3 million and he was in a terrible offensive funk when he got dumped out of here (1 goal in 18 games) ... now that they see what he's doing in New York, they'd bend over backwards and kiss their rear end to have him back.
Holland thankfully has more patience than some kids on a message board. Not only will the Oilers play the long game on Athansiou, I actually will call this too -- Jesse Puljujarvi isn't gonna get traded either. Holland will force him to play for the Oilers or forfeit millions of dollars. Holland wants to see him play for a long period here before he gets forced into doing anything. He is much more deliberate of a GM in that way.
Good luck by the way finding a player that can skate like McDavid, is 25 years old, scores at a 20-30 goal rate for the last 4 seasons for only $3 million dollars (peanuts) this summer on the UFA market. Gooooooood f***ing luck on that.