Oilers’ Zack Kassian trade clears crucial salary cap space, so what’s next?

MONTREAL — There was no other choice. The Oilers had to move on from Zack Kassian and his contract.

The team’s tight salary cap situation was one thing. Kassian’s mostly putrid play from the moment the ink dried on the lengthy deal was another.

Fresh off a trip to the final four, and with two of the game’s biggest superstars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl perhaps at their zenith, there was no better time to do this. It had to be done.

Thursday was that day.

“I didn’t want to trade draft picks, but I didn’t want to buy out Zack,” Oilers GM Ken Holland said. “So, here we are.”

Holland moved down three spots in the draft and traded a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick to jettison perhaps the most ineffective player on the roster. The Oilers took left winger Reid Schaefer from WHL Seattle, a Spruce Grove, Alta., native, with the 32nd pick.

That was the cost to clean up arguably Holland’s biggest mistake in his three years on the job — an ill-conceived decision even if an unexpected world crisis was partially to blame.

The Oilers were on the way up amid a surprisingly successful season when Kassian was extended on a four-year, $3.2 million AAV deal in January 2020. The hulking winger had spent significant time on the first line with McDavid and Draisaitl for the 2019 calendar year under former coaches Ken Hitchcock and Dave Tippett.

Remember, Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto were essentially out of the picture during that time. Puljujarvi didn’t play a game for the Oilers for almost two years, and Yamamoto was in the nascent stage of making an NHL impact when Kassian signed. With due respect to Alex Chiasson, Josh Archibald and Patrick Russell, right wing depth was pretty thin, too.

The only other defence of the contract was Holland thought the salary cap was going to increase several million dollars. Instead, a pandemic crippled the NHL’s economic landscape and flattened the cap.

“I don’t really regret it,” Holland said. “In life, you make the decisions based upon the information that you’ve got at the time. When the information changes then you’ve got to roll with the punches. There’s a number of teams making similar moves around the league — much of it’s pandemic-related.”

The truth is the extension was for too long and for too much money.

Signing Kassian also had a major ripple effect almost instantly.

It ate into the limited cap room that could have been used to offer defenceman Darnell Nurse, then a restricted free agent, a long-term contract. Instead, Nurse was bridged for two years at $5.6 million AAV a couple weeks later. He then had a career season in 2021 and finished seventh in Norris Trophy voting, other comparable blueliners were striking it rich, and Holland had little choice but to pay Nurse what he wanted. That whopper of a deal — eight years with a $9.25 million AAV — starts in October.

There’s nothing that can be done about that now. The main thing is Kassian and his contract are gone.

That doesn’t mean the Kassian era in Edmonton shouldn’t be remembered with some fondness.

Kassian’s acquisition for goaltender Ben Scrivens in January 2016 wound up on the short list of ex-GM Peter Chiarelli’s best moves — admittedly a small number. He’d blown his last chance in Montreal after getting injured in a car crash and was dealt to the Oilers after completing the league’s substance abuse program.

Kassian worked to clean up his life in Edmonton and became a fan favourite for his role on the 2017 playoff team. He was finally starting to make good on some of the promise that made him a first-round pick in 2009. His two daughters were born while he was an Oiler. There are some redeeming aspects of his story.

But sometimes those types of stories aren’t perfect or never-ending. The error was pumping him up with two superstars and then re-signing him when he was at his peak.

Kassian tumbled down the lineup almost from the moment he signed. He did little to ever warrant a promotion to the top six. He had 11 goals over his last 105 regular-season and playoff games.

“His role changed,” Holland said. “Our team got deeper and his role was greatly diminished.”

Holland desperately needed to clear cap room— and ridding himself of Kassian was a no-brainer. He has a ton of work to do and that $3.2 million will be a huge help.

According to PuckPedia, the Oilers have $8.66 million in space after the Kassian trade, which rises to $15 million if defenceman Oscar Klefbom and goaltender Mike Smith eventually go on LTIR. The former is a near guarantee; the latter appears very likely.

Still, replacing Smith — if that’s what happens — will be costly. A No. 1 goaltender could eat up roughly a third of that $15 million.

Forwards Puljujarvi, Yamamoto and Ryan McLeod either need new contracts or Holland must find a substitute for them. Yamamoto and Puljujarvi are arbitration eligible and are expected to be in the $3 million AAV range on bridge deals. There’s a high likelihood Puljujarvi will be dealt for an NHL player, which means taking on money.

The Oilers are also considering re-signing midseason additions Evander Kane and Brett Kulak. Neither will be cheap with Kane tracking for a significant raise on his current $2.1 million cap hit. The plan is to replace Kane with a proven top-six forward if he signs elsewhere.

“Try to keep some of the people we have,” said Holland when asked about what he can do with the money he saved on Kassian’s contract. “There are so many things.”

There might be other ways to gain more cap space.

As with Smith, Holland is hopeful for an answer from Duncan Keith about his playing future by the end of the weekend. The understanding here is Keith is more likely than not to play next season, but the Oilers will gain $5.5 million if the veteran defenceman retires. Of course, if that happens, another defenceman — perhaps Kulak — will have to fill the void.

The two other trade possibilities are winger Warren Foegele and defenceman Tyson Barrie. At least they appear to have some value.

That wasn’t the case for Kassian, as Holland had to relinquish assets to unload him. There are no mulligans in the world in the hockey business. In that respect, the trade wasn’t ideal.

From the perspective of building the 2022-23 Oilers, however, this trade was a chef’s kiss.

It was a necessary evil to repair a self-inflicted wound.

(Photo: Perry Nelson / USA Today)