Oilers salary cap crunch may lead to another buy out of bloated contract

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Ryan Hall
August 2, 2024 (1:54 PM)

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During the latest episode of Oilers Nation podcast, they suggested that the Oilers are preparing to move on and potentially buy out Evander Kane's contract.

Podcast host Tyler Yaremchuk explains that the organization will need to make key decisions on players such as Brett kulak and Evander Kane as they look to lock up their stars in Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.

Both Bouchard and Draisaitl are entering their final year of their deals and with the exceptional play of both players especially Bouchard who has taken his game to the next level we'll be looking for a significant raise which will put extreme pressure on their salary cap. Yaremchuk Feels that the Oilers will move on from Kane and potentially buy him out as he holds a cap hit of $5.1 million.

He also explains that the cap will rise from 88 million to a potential 92,000,000 after next season which will help the Oilers greatly in terms of securing players and giving existing players a pay bump.

It's clear that the Oilers will need to make some significant changes to their roster in order to fit all the key players in and keep this group going for the next several years. Moving on from Kane is certainly a smart step as his game has dropped dramatically over the past two years.

With newly appointed general manager Stan Bowman and Oilers president Jeff Jackson now in charge, it remains to be seen on how swift both men feel these changes are needed and how they will be able to fit everyone under the cap.