HallOfGreatness4
Best NHL gambler around
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Any true levity to this? I know it's three years away. But I would like to think this is a decade Oiler here. Is this a real possibility or is there a chance the writer could be spot on?
A realistic strategy is to keep an eye on McDavid and strike in three years time when the first opportunity presented itself. Three years from now, McDavid becomes a restricted free agent assuming that Edmonton does not resign him before he completes his entry level contract. By that time, the Oilers may well have difficulties getting itself under the salary cap as Edmonton have already committed $22,000,000 to just four players for the 2018 to 2019 season: Jordan Eberle ($6,000,000), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($6,000,000), Taylor Hall ($6,000,000), and Benoit Pouliot ($4,000,000). Even if the Oilers is willing to spend the maximum allowed, i.e., at the salary ceiling, for the 2018 to 2019 season, it would be a tall order to fill out the reminder of the roster (totalling 19 players, especially with players such as Nail Yakupov expecting a big raise on his second contract) seeing that the team has already tied up so much money on just four players. As such, Edmonton could face major challenges trying to free up enough cap space to resign McDavid by that time, much like how the Pittsburgh Penguins have little salary cap room to manoeuvre now having devoted a significant percentage of its salary cap to five players: Crosby, Marc-André Fleury, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin. In fact, the Oilers could find itself in cap jail, a situation that is reminiscent of how the Chicago Blackhawks had to dispatch key members of its Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2010, 2013, and 2015 having spent a large portion of its cap space to lock up Patrick Kane, Ducan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Jonathan Toews.
Any true levity to this? I know it's three years away. But I would like to think this is a decade Oiler here. Is this a real possibility or is there a chance the writer could be spot on?