The Oilers' cap crunch does have a silver lining.

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Ryan Hall
July 6, 2023 (8:42)

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As the NHL continues to be mired with a flat salary cap, many teams are handcuffed in making major deals or starting a new trend of bankrolling other teams' cap hits for trades. This has created an unprecedented trade deadline and offseason in terms of contracts and trades.

Currently, the Oilers have a roster size of 20 players and $5.62 million worth of cap space remaining to sign three more. One key player who will be on the docket to sign is defenseman Evan Bouchard.

Whether General Manager Ken Holland should offer a long-term contract or a bridge contract has been much debated. However, a decision needs to be made soon as a player of Bouchard's calibre needs to be locked up, regardless of the contract type.

The good news for the Oilers is that two of their stars who scored over 80 points last season have the lowest cap hit in the league. Those players are Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman. Nugent-Hopkins has a cap hit of $5.12 million, while Hyman's cap hit is $5.5 million. This is certainly helpful for the Oilers, as they are not exceeding their budget with players of their calibre.

During the past year, Nugent-Hopkins played 82 games, scoring 37 goals with 67 assists for a total of 104 points. He maintained a +12 rating and contributed 53 power-play goals. Hyman played 79 games, scoring 36 goals with 47 assists for a total of 83 points. He had a +13 rating, 26 power-play points, and accumulated 39 penalty minutes.

As the salary cap continues to increase and is forecasted to rise even higher in the coming years at a rapid pace, the current salaries of Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman, combined with the products they bring to the Oilers, will give management and ownership reasons to smile.