Insider reveals Oilers' plan for Campbell after AHL failure
When the Oilers sent down Jack Campbell to the AHL's Bakersfield Condors, the front office was hoping that he would be able to regain his confidence, find his game, and make a quick comeback to the NHL. Instead, the results have been worse than anyone could imagine. On today's edition of the Oilers Now show, Bob Stauffer and Elliotte Friedman discussed the team's next steps with Campbell.
Now through ten games in the AHL, Campbell has a record of 4-6-0 with a brutal 3.46 GAA and .888 save percentage. His performance has been so bad that the Oilers extended the duration of his stay in the minors. Now, even the Condors' head coach is reluctant to play Campbell because he's losing them too many games.
With the Oilers in desperate need of wins, and Campbell unable to put up results even in the AHL, the team simply can not risk playing him in meaningful games. Therefore, Campbell has likely played his last game for the Edmonton Oilers, and the team is expeditiously exploring options to move him.
However, with Campbell's contract as the worst in the NHL, trading him is near impossible. No team, even rebuilders, would be interested in taking on his 4 more years at $5M each without getting almost unbelievable assets in return. So instead, Friedman and Stauffer speculate that the Oilers will likely have to buy out Campbell.
If that is the case, the Oilers will have to endure this entire season with Campbell's contract on the books. It's a total anchor on the team, as his salary could actually be spent on a competent starting goalie. Now keeping in mind the Oilers will have to keep his salary on the books for the rest of the season, GM Ken Holland will be completely unable to make this team a contender.
| POLL | ||
Will the Oilers have to buy out Campbell? | ||
| Buy him out and take the financial penalty | 282 | 49.6 % |
| Trade whatever it takes to get out of his contract | 287 | 50.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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