The Edmonton Oilers will not have long to grieve over their Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. The NHL offseason is already underway and it’s about to hit a breakneck pace over the next few days.
Among the list of things to do for the Oilers, including potentially finding a new general manager, is how to navigate the first buyout window.
That first window would open up 48 hours following the end of the Stanley Cup Final, which would be today at 3 PM MST. The Oilers are one of the teams that could utilize this to their advantage and have been heavily linked to potentially going down that path.
Here are the potential candidates for the dreaded buyout:
Jack Campbell
This is more of a certainty than a possible chance. Unless a team is willing to take on Jack Campbell without a significant asset attached, then it’s likely that he is going to be bought out. Signed to a five-year, $25M contract back in the summer of 2022, things have just gone disastrous for Campbell during his Oilers tenure. So much in fact that he spent the majority of his season with the Bakersfield Condors.
With three years remaining on his deal, this is what a buyout would look like using CapFriendly’s calculator (use it while you can):
At ⅔ of the total contract value, the buyout would last for six seasons against the cap at $1.5M. This would last until the 2029–30 season, and save the Oilers significant space over the next three years as they continue their winning window. The smaller cap hit for the extra three seasons past when Campbell’s contract was supposed to end may be pennies on the dollar if the cap continues to rise as it is supposed to.
With the team looking to run it back with a few improvements, this just makes so much sense.
Evander Kane
From entirely likely, to perhaps completely impossible, Evander Kane is an interesting candidate for a few reasons. Now it’s more likely that a team would be willing to give up some sort of asset for him before a buyout is executed, Kane’s $5.125M cap hit may be too much for some teams to take on.
A buyout would look like this:
A four-year buyout for Kane is manageable, combined with the same point as Campbell where the latter two years would be very palatable in an increasing salary cap world. Now what would deter the team from this maneuver is that it only saves them $1.625M next season due to Kane’s $2M signing bonus due on July 1. They would get a boost against the 2025–26 cap, but that seems minimal.
Kane looked to be at odds with his teammates this season, combined with nagging injuries, but he’s still a player that gets you to the postseason. If the team is going to take him off the books, it’s more likely that it’s done via trade.
Expiring contracts galore
The Oilers’ main issue is that the team has a ton of expiring deals they need to solve first. A Campbell buyout is inevitable, but outside of that, they aren’t dying to take other players off the books. Most players either are on longer-term deals, team-friendly contracts, or are a key part of the structure of the team.
Again, it’s always a good sign that an NHL team doesn’t have a ton of contracts to buy out, so one is enough for the Oilers.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
