The Edmonton Oilers have made it to the Stanley Cup Final twice during the salary-cap era, and both times the club boasted impressive value contracts.
This season, the dual offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the St. Louis Blues successfully undercut this area of the roster in a significant way.
The current edition of the club is the most top-heavy in history, with buyout dollars and a dwindling prospect pool adding to the degree of difficulty for management.
Do the Oilers have enough value contracts this season?
The 2005-06 team
The 2005-06 Oilers had Craig MacTavish behind the bench. He was a borderline genius in coaching at five-on-five.
MacT gave some of it back on the power play, and his goaltenders during the regular season (.887 save percentage) bled goals on the double.
When the playoffs arrived, led by newly acquired Dwayne Roloson, the goaltenders stopped 92 percent of the shots and the Oilers came within a whisper of the Stanley Cup.
One of the major positives for that team came from six young players who were on entry-level deals or low-paying second contracts.
Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff, Raffi Torres, Jarret Stoll, Fernando Pisani and Marc-Andre Bergeron all played substantial roles on the team, each making $1 million or less in 2005-06.
It was a big advantage for MacTavish and one of the keys to team success. This roster could be considered both homegrown (all but Bergeron and Torres were drafted by the team) and lucky (the cap explosion had yet to hit this group in 2005-06).
It was an anomaly for several reasons. The Oilers can’t duplicate six emerging talents yet to get paid while rostering Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
How close did they get last season?
The 2023-24 team
McDavid costs $12.5 million AAV and is a value contract. No one can argue it, but that idea runs contrary to the idea of value contracts being deployed in prominent roles and organizations finding undervalued players for vital spots in the heart of the order.
A better metric would be individual players who have major roles and make league average (or close) dollars while supplying far more
Last year’s team boasted an impact player who cost just $3.9 million in cap dollars (Evan Bouchard) and was absolutely a value deal. The average NHL salary was slightly less but Bouchard gives us a great starting point for our conversation.
Here are Edmonton’s value deals from last year’s Stanley Cup Final team. All four of these names outscored their cap hits and spent time in a feature role.
| Player | Cap hit | Role |
|---|---|---|
 Evan Bouchard |
$3.9M
|
Top pairing; 82 points
|
 Warren Foegele |
$2.75M
|
Middle-six W; 20 goals
|
 Stuart Skinner |
$2.6M
|
No. 1 G; 36 wins
|
 Ryan McLeod |
$2.1M
|
No. 3 C; 30 points
|
A feature role is any spot on the top two lines and pairings, No. 3 centre and No. 1 goaltender.
Bouchard and Skinner emerged as the first foundation pieces to be drafted and developed since Darnell Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid a decade ago. It was welcome news for an organization that experienced multiple false starts late last decade and in the early years of this one.
Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod left via free agency and were shipped away over the summer, respectively. Both had an impact on the success of the 2023-24 team, specifically in foot speed and transporting the puck through the neutral zone.
Many fans look back to the summer, with the losses of Broberg, Holloway, Warren Foegele and Ruan McLeod, and wonder if this team has enough to replace the collective youth, speed and enthusiasm of those four players.
How about this year?
The Oilers have Bouchard and Skinner on the roster with the same cap hit as one year ago.
| Player | Cap | Role |
|---|---|---|
|
Evan Bouchard |
$3.9M
|
Top pairing D
|
 Jeff Skinner |
$3M
|
No. 2 LW
|
|
$3M
|
No. 3 C
|
|
|
Stuart Skinner |
$2.6M
|
No. 1 G
|
Both men have struggled in the early days of the season but are in the growth period of young careers. The odds are strong that they will bring value by the end of the season.
Very few teams have a contract on the books carrying a talent like Bouchard. The NHL average salary for this season ($3.445 million, via PuckPedia) isn’t far from Bouchard’s number, and he is likely to deliver extreme value (as he did last year).
A starting goalie and top-pairing defenceman who is key to the power play coming in at $6.5 million on the cap is a fantastic start.
Here are the two other players who qualify.
• Adam Henrique is on a $3 million deal that was considered a bargain the moment it was signed. It’s an example of a veteran in search of a Stanley Cup ring. His reaction to being traded to Edmonton at the deadline mirrored Mattias Ekholm the year before. Quality veterans want to win a championship and view the Oilers as a strong contender.
Henrique as a value deal is an outlier of note compared to 2005-06 and 2023-24. All of the names on previous rosters were younger talents, most of them drafted and developed by Edmonton.
This is an important development. Edmonton’s prospect pool will not deliver “feature” players consistently because draft picks and prospects are heading out every deadline. Henrique’s decision to sign in Edmonton, eschewing bigger dollars from other teams, is a definite change in attitude from NHL veterans.
• Jeff Skinner is another example of a veteran signing below market value, but with a twist. If Skinner fills the net with goals on his $3 million deal (for just one year), he might be able to sign long-term with the Oilers. For a player who is now 32, he played in over 1,000 games and has yet to play in a postseason, Skinner’s decision to sign in Edmonton for lower AAV is understandable.
For the Oilers, this is a possible windfall. It might be repeatable, especially if Henrique and Skinner find their names on the Stanley Cup this time next year.
The danger is signing older players, but the protection for Edmonton is the short-term nature of these deals (Henrique’s contract is for two years) signed over the summer.
Beyond those names, defencemen Troy Stecher ($787,500) and Ty Emberson ($950,000), right winger Connor Brown ($1 million) and left winger Vasily Podkolzin ($1 million) might be able to deliver in a prominent role. However, they are playing down the lineup in Edmonton currently.
Calvin Pickard ($1 million) and Corey Perry ($1.15 million) have the same issue and are even less likely to receive prominent playing time.
The big storm cloud in the Oilers’ list of possible value deals in 2024-25? There is no obvious candidate playing for the Bakersfield Condors at this time.
Broberg and Holloway were the last candidates, Matt Savoie is the next one but it’s too soon to contemplate that development.
The club has up-and-coming talents like Noah Philp, Max Wanner and Jayden Grubbe, but all of those names are likely to land in support roles should they arrive in the NHL.
The 2006 team had six value contracts, last year’s had four and it looks like another four will deliver this season.
Bouchard and Skinner will soon age out and sign bigger contracts. Henrique and Skinner will soon need new deals and sign those contracts when they’re even closer to retirement.
Can Oilers management find a steady stream of NHL veterans who are desperate to win the Stanley Cup and are willing to sign value deals in Edmonton?
Too soon to know.
(Photo of Evan Bouchard, Adam Henrique and Stuart Skinner: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
