Five Edmonton Oilers The Team Should Say Goodbye To This Offseason

The Edmonton Oilers need to make some moves this offseason to get their team to the next level. Whether it be trading players away or letting them walk in free agency, the Edmonton Oilers need to be active to improve their team for the future.

The Oilers lost out on the Andrei Kuzmenko sweepstakes. That has got to hurt for the Oilers as he was going to be a good top-six forward this team could add to their lineup on a very good cheap deal.

The Oilers finished the 2021-22 season with a record of 49-27-6 good for second in the Pacific Division. They had their first taste of true playoff success with Connor McDavid getting to the Western Conference Final only to be swept by the Colorado Avalanche, a team looking like one of the best ever. 

Edmonton definitely needs to make some moves this offseason, but doing so is not going to be easy considering a lot of their money is tied up to a few players with movement clauses.

Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse and Duncan Keith all of those players have no movement clauses affecting the Oilers’ ability to do moves.

In fact, those six players make up 56.3 percent of the Oilers’ salary cap. That is a lot of money for six players on a team, especially when considering Keith is 38.

With the majority of the team’s salary locked up within those six players, Edmonton is going to have to think outside of the box when it comes to bringing in talent and pooling a good team around their core group of McDavid and Draisaitl.

Here are a few players the team will have to let go this offseason to make their roster better in the future.