The Oilers may have already pulled off one of the summer’s stranger cap maneuvers, but the next one looks a lot harder to finish.
Edmonton’s earlier move with Darnell Nurse set the bar high. The Sharks took on all of his contract, and the Oilers got something back in the deal.
Now the question is whether GM Stan Bowman can find another trade partner willing to absorb a contract and give the team more flexibility. That’s the easy version on paper.
The real version is where things get messy.
Tristan Jarry is one of the names that shows just how difficult this can get. His injuries and rough numbers make him a tough sell, and the $5.375M cap hit over the next two years only adds to the risk for any team considering him.
Trent Frederic brings a different kind of problem. He’s not producing much for a $3.85M cap hit, and with seven years left on his deal, he’s the kind of player most teams would rather avoid taking on.
That same tension between what sounds possible and what actually gets done is showing up in Vancouver, where Shane Wright trade talk has Canucks fans paying close attention. The fit makes sense on the surface.
He’s a young center, and he lines up with the team’s rebuild timeline and future down the middle. But Seattle’s reported asking price is a big one: Zeev Buium or Tom Willander.
That’s the kind of return Vancouver probably doesn’t want to part with, especially when both are viewed as blue-line cornerstones. If that price comes down later, the Canucks could revisit it.
And then there’s the Blue Jackets situation with Zach Werenski, which has become its own kind of fanbase stress test. It’s not unusual for top players to use leverage.
What makes this one tricky is how quickly the public conversation can start to clash with the team’s planning. Once a player starts talking about the future, fans tend to treat it like the outcome is already locked in.
That’s where the spiral starts. “Keeping options open” can get translated into “everything’s settled” before anything has actually been decided. The lesson, at least for now, is to hold off on the certainty until there’s a real answer.
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Manny Malhotras staff is now in place, and the broader picture is hard to miss: this is a group being built to teach as much as to win right away. Vancouver is leaning into younger defensemen, with Filip Hronek still a central piece, and the message from these moves is clear enough for anyone reading between the lines. The Canucks are choosing the long view, even if it means more growing pains before the payoff arrives. [Read more 🡒]