I think we will take a REALLY hard run at Hamilton next offseason. I think Bouchard ends up as a regular next year. Bear is still here, and Barrie leaves for someplace else. We let Larsson walk and use his $4.1 M to try and sign Hamilton. I'm guessing Hamilton ends up costing around $8.75 M to sign long term next year. I have *no idea* if he'd be willing to come to the Oilers or not, but I think we go after him. In this case, we'd basically end up using around $4.5 M of our space cap on landing Hamilton.
We should still have another $4-6 million on top of that space, depending on how we replace the bottom-6 guys. That should be enough to sign a 2nd line winger, or improve our goalie situation. We could go after Kuemper and his $4.5 M price tag as an example, or try and sign a winger in the "Dzingle-level" of free agent. I could see this maybe being an internal cap spend as well, say if Kahun shoots the lights out as an example.
I am assuming that we retain RNH for around $7 M, or end up signing Hall for the money we would have used on RNH. I am also assuming a Neal cap buyout. I am also assuming we'll sign bottom-6 guys pretty cheap (ex: replacing Chiasson with a $1-1.25 M player).
Our cap situation is pretty good next offseason, so we should be able to make some hay, either through trades or free agent signings. I wouldn't be surprised at all for Holland to have the 21 and 22 1st round picks in play as well.
