NHL teams have options for making trades at the NHL draft. For instance, they can use their first-round draft pick to acquire a goaltender. Also, a centerman that they've been covering for a long time is going through contractual problems with his current team.
The Oilers will seek out help in all three areas which are forward, defence and goaltending.
At this moment, the Oilers currently have nine unrestricted and restricted free agents to decide whether to retain their services or let them go into the wild.
They may need to become creative to find cap space the Oilers are right up against the cap limit and have some key free agents to sign such as defenseman Evan Bouchard.
So the team does not have a first-round pick after sending it to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Mattias Ekholm, general manager Ken Holland may try to acquire a first-round as this will be one of the deepest drafts in 20 years. It's quite possible they could use Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto in trade to aquire more pieces to round out the lineup.
He will enter the final year of his deal at 3.1million AAV.
The NHL Entry Draft will be on June 28th and 29th.
POLL | ||
Will the Oilers make a splash in the offseason for an unrestricted free agent? | ||
Yes | 118 | 64.5 % |
No | 65 | 35.5 % |
List of polls |