Edmonton Oilers linked to acquiring star forward Mikko Rantanen
According to NHL insider Andy Strickland, the Edmonton Oilers are among the favourites to sign star forward Mikko Rantanen if he leaves the Carolina Hurricanes in free agency.
Mikko Rantanen was just sent to the Hurricanes in a blockbuster trade with the Colorado Avalanche, moving on from the star forward because of his pending free agency after this season.
NHL insider says Edmonton Oilers are targeting Mikko Rantanen in free agency
Strickland stressed that he has information that leads him to believe there's mutual interested between the Oilers and Rantanen, and that Edmonton will have the salary cap space to make the move.
They're gonna be able to pay him there is some belief they can make that happen.
- Andy Strickland
According to reports after the Rantanen trade, Leon Draisaitl's contract for $14M was one of the reasons the Avalanche decided they couldn't pay their star player and moved on with the trade.
Rantanen is expected to seek around $14M in free agency, which would be difficult for any contending team to fit. Another positive factor for his fit to Edmonton is sharing the same agent as Leon Draisaitl.
Will the Oilers have the salary cap space to sign Mikko Rantanen?
With all of their players coming off the books this season and the salary cap expected to increase, the Oilers will have around $17.93M in salary cap space this offseason - which they first wil need to use to re-sign or replace players like Bouchard, Emberson, Jeff Skinner, Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, and John Klingberg.
From that, it seems incredibly unlikely that the Oilers will have the cap space to sign a player like Rantanen. However, deferred salary contracts have opened up the possibility to bring annual cap hits down.
Perhaps the Oilers can sign Rantanen to a deferred money contract to bring down the AAV - they could explore the same with Evan Bouchard. Oilers ownership has the financial power to throw around such contracts.
It would be truly insane to see Mikko Rantanen join the Oilers and form a super team with that offensive lineup. Hopefully Oilers management can get creative, and find a way to lure him to Edmonton and fit under the cap.
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