Category Archives: Player Signing

Oilers Get Their 3C – Sign Riley Sheahan

Word is that the Oilers have signed Riley Sheahan to team friendly contract.

Sheahan should be a good fit on the Oilers at 3C and just maybe fans can start thinking about the possibility of fighting for a playoff spot.  Here are Sheahans career numbers:

Are the Oilers about to sign Derick Brassard?

According to Big George the Oilers are about to sign Derick Brassard to a one year deal. 

I would be on board with a Brassard signing for 1 year, presumably at a low cap hit. He would fit right in at 3rd line center.

Value

Could Ty Rattie Be A Value Contract?

The Oilers are in desperate need for some value contracts in 2018/19 and they may have just signed one with Ty Rattie. According to cap friendly the deal is a one way, one year contract with a cap hit of $800k. In my post last week assessing the Oilers cap situation going into next season I mentioned that a multi year deal for Rattie with a cap hit close to $1M would be a win and while they only managed to lock him up for one season the cap hit is under the $1M mark.
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Oilers Sign Another College Kid

Peter Chiarelli won the jackpot last season with the signings of Matt Benning and Drake Caggiula and he’s at it again.  Today the Oilers have signed Joe Gambardella to a two-year deal and have added some much needed depth to the center position in the organization. Gambardella is coming off a big season where he scored 52 points in 41 games centering the top line for UMass Lowell in the NCAA.

The 23 year old Gambardella isn’t huge at 5’10 and 201lbs but seems like a suitable replacement in the organization for Anton Lander who appears to jetting off to play in the KHL next season.

This is a big signing imo, this kid is probably on par with what Drake Caggiula was a year ago when he signed with the Oilers and Caggiula was able to make the team out of training camp and stick with the big club all season.  I don’t expect Gambardella to make the Oilers out of camp next season but I think he’ll be in the conversation and could be an early call up if a center is injured on the big club.

Oilers trade Nail Yakupov for Cap Space and a Pick

The Oilers have traded Nail! Sad days.

Nail Yakupov to the Blues for Zach Pochiro and a conditional pick.

There has been all kinds of speculation that Yakupov had asked for a trade and that the Oilers were close to trading him last season but honestly we’ll never know for certain how much truth there is to this stuff. What we do know is that Peter Chiarelli has now traded two of the wonder kids from the previous administration and in both cases cap space was a large part of the decision.
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Edmonton Oilers: No Need To Be Concerned With Jesse Puljujarvi

The Edmonton Oilers continued their recent history of drafting highly touted offensive prospects in the first round. With the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft, the Oilers drafted 18-year old Swedish right winger Jesse Puljujarvi. This marks the fourth time in five years the Oilers drafted an offensive player with a top five pick: 2012 #1 Nail Yakupov, 2014 #3 Leon Draisaitl, 2015 #1 Connor McDavid and now Puljujarvi.

Puljujarvi comes to the NHL with high expectations. The 6’3” right-winger recorded four goals and four assists in 16 games as a 17-year old in Finland’s top professional league. NHL’s Director of European Scouting Goran Stubb had high praise for Puljujarvi saying, “He’s a powerful skater with good speed and balance. He has outstanding hockey sense and reads the play well. He’s a good playmaker with strong puck-handling skills. He can take advantage of 1- on-1 situations with his long reach.”
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Will Peter Chiarelli Make Bold Moves?

The Edmonton Oilers have given full control of the Oilers to Peter Chiarelli, naming him President of Hockey Operations and General Manager. Chiarelli is going to take a few weeks to assess the team and players to see exactly where his positions of strength and weakness are before making any moves, but he will make moves. Given his track record of making big trades in Boston I think we can expect a big trade or two this summer.

The Weaknesses

The weaknesses on the Oilers are pretty obvious, they need a starting goalie and they need a couple of top pairing defensemen if they want a shot at making the playoffs next season. They may have an opportunity to get a piece or two via free agency but typically that requires an overpayment and I’m not sure thats a good idea in Edmonton so I expect Chiarelli to make a couple of trades to fill these areas.
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Oilers Sign Tkachev… Or Not!

UPDATE: The NHL has ruled that the entry level contract that the Oilers have signed with Tkachev is ineligible due to the fact that he did not play a full season in the North America last season. Tkachev will re-enter the draft next season because Oilers.

The Oilers have signed Vladdy Hockey to a 3 year entry level contract this morning. The move will most likely turn alot of heads because of Tkachev’s size (he’s reportedly only 141 lbs) but I’m thrilled they could add such a skilled player to the system for nothing but money. Tkachev has had a great pre-season run with the Oilers and has certainly earned the 3 year deal which will likely keep the player in the system for the next 5 seasons as he is eligible to return to Jr for 2 more years.
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Oilers sign Fayne and Pouliot

As per the Oilers official twitter:

The Mark Fayne deal is 4yrs $14M with a cap hit of 3.5M and the Benoit Pouliot deal is 5 yrs $20M with a cap hit of $4M.

I’m quite happy with these signings, we know that the Oilers have to offer either more money or more term to convince a UFA to come to Edmonton. Its nice to see the team get a couple of guys who have good possession numbers.

Oilers Get Their Man

The Oilers signed defenceman Nikita Nikitin this morning to a 2yr contract at 4.5M per year. The dollars are a tad high for a guy who played 3rd pairing minutes last year in Columbus but the Oilers had to pay for that short term. I’m sure Nikitin was probably looking for a 4-6 year term in the 3.5M to 4M range but the Oilers were looking to add a bridge player to give Nurse 2 more seasons to develop before making the jump to the NHL.

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