Without much cap space, and still with a single RFA left to sign, the Edmonton Oilers have little choice but to go short term to minimise cap costs. While most have accepted this means a one-year deal on the horizon for Evan Bouchard—not necessarily ideal for a player of his calibre—this was not the case for the other Oilers RFA, Ryan McLeod. Perhaps a bit lost in the shuffle, or at least the hustle and bustle of the new additions and younger higher-upside prospects, is the continued growth we’ve seen from McLeod.
Over the past two seasons, McLeod has proven his worth as a legitimate NHL forward, first by hanging onto a regular lineup spot through the 2021–22 season, all but cementing himself as a strong third line centre during the 2022–23 season. If nothing else, McLeod should be expected to remain a checking centre through the next few seasons, but there might be more upside on the horizon yet.
Style
McLeod is a left shot centre, whose primary attribute is his speed. He’s able to leverage this in a number of ways, but most notably as a transition defender, using his speed to control gaps working back into his own zone. Naturally, this speed might work on the forecheck, or even in transition attacking. Although McLeod is not a star puck carrier through the neutral zone and onto the attacking zone, his speed will help stretch the ice and open room for teammates.
McLeod should continue to improve in some of the finer details of the game, mostly his in zone defending and his faceoff skills, but has been competent enough to continue earning more trust from the coaching staff. For these reasons it is not that surprising that McLeod was able to be a mainstay on the Oilers foremost checking line. Alongside Warren Foegele, a workmanlike winger, McLeod posted strong results in terms of controlling the flow of play. In the playoffs, McLeod and Foegele were joined by Derek Ryan, and the trio were quite adept at checking.
Room for more?
The area where McLeod can most improve is linked, as the checking line did little in terms of contributing to the scoreboard. At lower levels we saw greater potential from McLeod in this regard, but in a defensive role and in limited icetime, this aptitude has not transferred into the NHL. While we can expect McLeod to continue refining his defensive game, or at the very least seeing his reputation catch up to his contributions, a much less certain area of growth is this offensive evolution.
At this point, expectations should be muted, as other young roster players would seem to have a higher offensive upside and a greater likelihood of such development, like Dylan Holloway, or perhaps even Raphael Lavoie. Still, McLeod should not be written off just yet, as a fair assessment of his situation would be to say that he has not had deployment that enables offensive production.
Two seasons ago, in 2021–22, McLeod saw some time on Leon Draisaitl’s wing. Though brief, as he was eventually moved back into a bottom-six centre role, McLeod showed some chemistry, particularly as a playmaker in this spot. Of course Draisaitl, as well as Connor McDavid, are supreme enough talents to elevate virtually any linemate, but this tells us that McLeod’s game could have more production to it, and that he might be able to support skilled linemates.
Draisaitl seemed to bring McLeod’s playmaking to life, showing the importance of deploying McLeod with a shooting talent. Moreover, McLeod’s speed opened up the ice for Draisaitl, making the pair a stylistic synergy. Perhaps McLeod could act as a shot-suppressing defensive conscience on a scoring line with Draisaitl and Evander Kane, for example.
During last season’s playoffs, the Oilers chose to promote Nick Bjugstad to this spot instead of McLeod. Bjugstad has an offensive game that profiles more as a net front scorer, shown by his three big goals over the playoff run, though it is hard not to think that McLeod’s playmaking would have brought a different element to the line. Bjugstad getting elevated over McLeod might have been in part because of how strong McLeod was as a checking centre, with his line with Foegele and Ryan playing too well together to separate.
Line combinations
In some sense, McLeod might be blocking himself again this season, as the Oilers are without another centre who profiles as the focal point of a checking line. There is a chance that the Oilers might try to have McDavid, Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all centring their own lines. This would warrant consideration for moving McLeod up the lineup and to the wing, but it is far more likely that McLeod will find himself reprising his role as a checking centre.
As such, and without much of a path to any power play time, it might be hard to predict that McLeod’s offensive production will explode upward. Instead, progress in this area will have to be more measured, and buoyed by potential new linemates. While it is quite likely that we will see Foegele on McLeod’s wing, Holloway could make an interesting option. Holloway would bring a forechecking element that should mesh well with McLeod’s checking game, while his potential upside and willingness as a shooter could add an offensive element to the line, perhaps bringing out McLeod’s playmaking skills.
Another younger option would be Lavoie. Although Lavoie’s game would appear to have less of a defensive profile than one would like from a checking line winger ( less than Holloway’s game, for example), his offensive abilities would certainly provide a stylistic jolt to a McLeod-Foegele line. Finally, there is a chance that Connor Brown might find himself on a checking line with McLeod. While not necessarily a top-six NHL scoring winger, Brown would be a sound linemate for McLeod.
Regardless of his even strength linemates, McLeod will look to continue to be an important piece of the Oilers penalty kill. The Oilers penalty kill was middling, at best, last season, but the expectation should be that their results here will improve over the 2023–24 season.
A deal was reached
With an arbitration case set for August 4, the Oilers and McLeod came to an agreement before that date. McLeod signed a two-year extension with an AAV of $2.1M. While McLeod’s level of play seems sustainable enough to warrant a multi-year contract, a smaller contract affords the Oilers some cap space while giving McLeod more negotiating leverage in the future.
With Bouchard still left to sign, McLeod’s deal will set the parameter for how much Bouchard’s expected one-year contract will be. Any further signings are expected to be for a league minimum salary, as the pair of RFAs will combine for at least the rest of the Oilers remaining cap hit. We might expect the Oilers to offer some unsigned NHL veterans professional tryouts (or PTOs) come training camp to fill out any final roster additions.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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