When the Edmonton Oilers first signed Zach Hyman to a seven-year, $38.5M contract, there were some naysayers who felt that it would become another in a long line of albatross contracts handed out to free agents in years past (see: Lucic, Milan).
Having set career highs in his first two seasons of the contract and on pace to once again top them this year, Hyman is not just living up to his contract, but exceeding all expectations.
Lots of press regarding free agency is negative, but in honour of Hyman, let’s look at some of the good signings the Oilers have made. For the purposes of this exercise, we will look at players signed from outside the organization, and only look at the players performance during said contract (i.e. no extensions allowed).
Evander Kane, one-year, $2,108,696 on January 27, 2022
On January 27, 2022, the Oilers were 21–16–2, putting them in sixth in the Pacific Division and two points out of a wild card spot. They were only 3–5–2 in their last 10 games, and something needed to be done soon lest the season go to waste.
The Oilers announced the signing of Evander Kane to a one-year, $2,108,696 (pro-rated) contract (working out to an actual salary of $1.375M). This was a controversial signing, to say the least.
Only hours earlier had the NHL completed its investigation on whether Kane had breached COVID-19 protocols, finding insufficient evidence that a violation had occurred.
Further, the reason Kane was even available as a free agent in the first place was because the San Jose Sharks terminated his contract with them, a seven-year $49M one, due to breach of the protocols.
Kane had other recent controversies, including allegations from his ex-wife for domestic abuse and that he had gambled on his own NHL games (the NHL investigated both and found no evidence of either). He also had filed for bankruptcy the year prior, in part because of gambling debts.
Those were just the recent ones, as the list of controversies since the start of his career was quite a lengthy one.
So, yeah, fair to say there were skeptics out there on the prudence of this signing, given that the team was going through a rough patch and that adding someone like Kane could end up being even more of a distraction then a positive.
Instead, Kane appeared to be the spark plug the Oilers needed.
Kane would make an immediate impact, scoring in his first game in an Oilers uniform, although the Oilers would win only two of his first five games (although Kane would record four points in those games).
The Oilers would then fire head Coach Dave Tippett, and hire Jay Woodcroft.
The Oilers would go 28–11–4 with Kane in the lineup to finish out the season in second place in the division, securing home ice. In those 43 games, Kane notched 22 goals and 39 points, a pace of 42 goals and 74 points. Kane would finish fourth in goals and eighth in points for team scoring, despite only playing half a season.
Kane would keep it up during the playoffs, scoring a further 13 goals in only 15 games, leading the team, and adding four assists as the Oilers would make it to the Conference Finals.
In addition to his scoring, Kane was well regarded in the dressing room, being described as bringing some “swagger” to the team.
While the coaching change was definitely a big part of the Oilers season being turned around, Kane cannot be overlooked as another catalyst that galvanized the team. Pretty good value for a contract that only accounted for 2.59% of the salary cap.
Tyson Barrie, one-year, $3.75M on October 10, 2020
Tyson Barrie was an offensive star with the Colorado Avalanche, posting 307 points in just 484 games, an average of 52 points per season.
Barrie was then traded to the Toronto Maples Leafs prior to the start of his last year of a four-year $22M contract. Barrie struggled under Mike Babcock (just like the rest of the team), but seemed to regain his offensive form under Sheldon Keefe, finishing with 39 points in 70 games.
However, Barrie was looked at as a defensive liability whose offensive prowess was not enough to cover for, and wasn’t re-signed by the Leafs. Part of the “disappointment” in Barrie was likely in part because he wasn’t used on the power play, which is usually his bread and butter.
Barrie ended up signing with the Oilers on a one-year, $3.75M deal for the 2020–21 season. Apparently Barrie had other larger and long term offers (including one which was apparently for $6M a year), but signed with the Oilers at a discount instead. Apparently, Connor McDavid gave Barrie a call to convince him, and Barrie wanted to come into a situation to show the NHL he was still a good player, despite what the Leafs thought of him.
And re-establish himself he did.
In the shortened 56 game season, Barrie notched 48 points, which led all defencemen in the league in scoring (although that wasn’t good enough to earn a single Norris Trophy vote, the first time that has occurred in NHL history).
This was good enough to earn Barrie a three-year extension at a still reasonable rate of $4.5M per year.
Unlike Leafs fans, Oilers fans appeared to appreciate Barrie more, and many were sad to see him traded two years later, although Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard have definitely helped ease those feelings.
Regardless, getting a league leading point getter for a fraction of the price of any other defenceman in the top 10 in scoring (ELC contracts aside) is ridiculously good value.
Alex Chiasson, one-year, $650,000 on October 2, 2018
Prior to the 2018 season, Alex Chiasson had a career high of 13 goals and 35 points, both achieved in his rookie season. However, he never reached those numbers again in his next four seasons, and ended up signing a professional tryout contract with the Oilers to attend training camp and try and earn an NHL contract.
Chiasson ended up performing well enough to earn a one-year, league minimum deal.
Chiasson ended up meshing extremely well with the Oilers, and earned himself a spot in the top six and on the top power play. He broke his career record in goals on December 14, 2018 by notching his 14th goal just 27 games into the season (along with a further three assists), and finished the season with 22 goals and 38 points, putting him fourth on the team in goals and fifth in points.
Chiasson had more goals than Milan Lucic, the coveted free agent signing in 2016, had points. Not bad for a guy making 10% of the others salary.
Chiasson was a feel good story for that year, one which was otherwise a disappointing campaign for the team where they finished 25th in the league.
Chiasson earned himself a two-year contract extension, but couldn’t captue the magic again.
Petr Sykora, one-year, $2.9M(maybe?) on August 11, 2006
You may be wondering why I have a maybe up there, and that’s because for some reason Petr Sykora’s salary was not disclosed when he signed it. Seriously, Sykora may be the only player who played during the cap era where even CapFriendly doesn’t know his contract terms.
However, from the few articles I could find that list his salary, it says $2.9M. So we will go with that.
Coming off the high of Stanley Cup Finals appearance, followed by the low of a mass exodus of important players for that run (Chris Pronger, Mike Peca, Jaroslav Spacek, and Sergei Samsonov in particular), the Oilers were reeling to find replacements.
Sykora was coming off a 23-goal, 51-point season, and had been a steady point producer his entire career, so this seemed like a definite win for the Oilers.
Sykora ended up finishing the season with 22 goals and 53 points, the latter of which was tied with Ryan Smyth and Ales Hemsky for the team lead.
Sykora also had more than kind words to say about Edmonton, which again for a fanbase reeling from players apparently not wanting to play here was music to their ears.
While he apparently wanted to stay, Sykora ended leaving as a free agent after his one year with the team, signing a two-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Sykora still performed admirably in his one year here.
Honourable mentions
One thing these all have in common? They are all one-year contracts, which does appear to abide by the free agency rule that long term contracts are the one that bite you in the butt.
I wanted to include Sheldon Souray and Andrej Sekera on this list, for instance, but injuries ended up cutting their time short and resulted in buyouts, which tarnished the short time they performed well on their contracts.
Hopefully Hyman can break the model, so that we can continue to bring up a now deleted tweet (at least the person seems to have a good humour about it).
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
