Late Tuesday night, the Edmonton Oilers extended forward Ryan McLeod. The 23-year-old forward received a two-year extension worth $2.1M per season according to PuckPedia. The deal will expire with McLeod once again having arbitration rights as a restricted free agent, two years in advance of unrestricted free agency.
McLeod and the Oilers settled in advance of the scheduled arbitration hearing on August 4 after the player had elected for arbitration, guaranteeing him a contract heading into camp. The hearing was scheduled to be the last one for the summer for the NHLPA. With the conclusion of the arbitration case, the Oilers now have a 48-hour window where they can buy out players with a minimum cap hit of $4M.
McLeod enters his second full season with the Oilers, where he’ll slot as the third line center behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The former second-round pick from 2018 had 11 goals and 12 assists in 57 regular season games last year. This was followed by five assists in the Oilers’ 12 playoff games.
The left shot forward posted a 57.2% expected goal share, 52.6% shot share, and 51.4% goal share in 644 minutes playing mainly away from the team’s two big centres.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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