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Connect the dots between two seemingly unrelated moves announced by Edmonton Oilers on Monday afternoon and the crystal ball becomes very clear.
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Considered together, the recall of the club’s top prospect and the signing of a veteran minor leaguer to an NHL contract of a slightly rich and oddly specific dollar amount surely set the table for the NHL squad to enter Long Term Injury status as early as Wednesday. In the process, the club’s available cap space will be maximized to the the nth degree.
The recall of Matt Savoie technically happened first. It is almost certainly a paper transaction in that the player himself is unlikely to leave Bakersfield, but by having his contract on the NHL payroll at such time as LTI uis declared, the Oilers can defer his potential bonuses to next year’s bonus pool. Whereas if they were to recall him later in the year without taking that preliminary step, that extra $1 million in bonuses would count against his cap in the current season. Who knows if he does get recalled, but a cap hit of $887,000 sounds a lot more palatable than $1,887,000, no?
The signing of Cameron Wright to an NHL-class deal after previous time on a minor league pact is in keeping with how Oilers have handled other late bloomers like Vincent Desharnais and James Hamblin. My first though was they were simply filling the roster spot opened up by Raphael Lavoie’s departure via waivers this morning. Nonetheless, that AAV of $952,000 seemed surprisingly large for a player who is too old to qualify for an ELC or even the Calder Trophy for that matter. (Wright turned 26 in August.)
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Hey lookit! Cap space of $952,000 and change.
By signing Wright to the entire available amount, the Oilers simply have to add him to the NHL roster once his contract is registered with the league, which is officially tomorrow. That will set their overall payroll within just $53 of the cap ceiling, officially consisting of the maximum 23 players.
The Oilers will surely then designate Evander Kane to LTIR, freezing their cap ceiling at $87,999,947. That will be followed by the reassignment of both Savoie and Wright to the AHL, opening up cap space of $886,666 + $952,000 = $1,838,666. Add in Kane’s hefty cap of $5,125,000, and suddenly there is about $7,000,000 in available space, at least until such time as Kane comes back later in the season. Given his prognosis of 5-6 months, there’s every chance that might not happen in the regular season at all.
At minimum the Oilers will have $1.8 million in cap space to work with. Very possible they’ll use it to sign PTO Travis Dermott and recall Noah Philp, another late bloomer whose NHL future may be right around the corner.
The excellent PuckPedia has subsequently done the same math to arrive at a similar conclusion.
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In Wright, the Oilers have added a competent minor leaguer to the 50-man list. They’ll pay him a solid salary, reportedly $80,000, to play in the AHL this year. No chance he’s in the NHL, so that “exorbitant” $952,000 figure was arrived at for entirely exterior reasons.
Some pretty nifty management of the cap rules to these eyes.
More to come.
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