After another slow start to the season, the Edmonton Oilers have once again climbed their way to the top of the Pacific division, with eyes set on another deep playoff run with the ultimate goal of winning it all.
With that in mind, the team is considered a buyer at this year’s trade deadline, as they look to fill in their roster with depth pieces to shore up their roster for a Cup run.
And until the salary cap finally rises over the coming years, it means that teams like Edmonton will have to get creative and find ways to free up cap space to bring in new talent. Often, that means trading away large salaries, even if at the expense of handing over some prospects or picks.
Earlier today, Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell wrote about six players with contracts that buyers may be looking to dump before the deadline. Among those is Oilers’ winger Jeff Skinner, who signed with Edmonton after getting bought out by the Buffalo Sabres last summer.
The winger is currently on a one-year, $3 million deal, and set to become a UFA come July 1st.
While Skinner’s contract is hardly Edmonton’s highest cap hit, the 32-year-old has severely underperformed this year. He was brought in as a possible compliment piece to Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, but has now spent most of his time in a bottom-six role, as an extra man in practice, and even as a healthy scratch.
Coming into this year with three consecutive 20+ goal seasons, and having put up 82 points just two years ago, he now has only 10 goals and 19 points through 48 games.
Given the situation with his contract compared to the value he is currently offering, there is a case to be made for trading him to a re-building team willing to take on his salary for some picks or prospects, writes Maxwell:
“With Evander Kane’s status up in the air, even roughly $4.5 million in cap space might not be enough for the Oilers to make the moves that they want, and Skinner stands out as a player that they could move on from if they need to make salary cap space in a deal. Every other player either has too much importance with the team or isn’t making enough to work well as a cap dump, and since Skinner was brought in to produce, but hasn’t done so, it makes him the odd man out here.”
At this point, it’s hard to say who might be interested in taking on Skinner’s contract or what that deal could look like, but it does offer one interesting option for the Oilers to consider in the coming month.
However, one issue with dumping Skinner is that he currently has a full no-movement clause, and would have to give his okay to any deal Edmonton makes.
Now 15 years in his career and still without a playoff appearance to show for it, it may be a tough sell to convince him to leave the contending Oilers in favour of a (likely) bottom-of-the-league team.
