Edmonton Oilers’ depth at forward is surely the envy of the NHL
It’s been a whirlwind fortnight for the Edmonton Oilers and their fans. Consider this sequence of events:
Draft, Oilers make a late splash, trading into the first round and selecting versatile forward Sam O’Reilly.Sat Jun 29: six more prospects selected at Day 2 of the Draft.Sun Jun 30: Oilers waive Jack Campbell for purposes of buying out his contract. Issue qualifying offers to five of seven restricted free agents.Mon Jul 01: No fewer than 14 transactions, one player at a time.
Buyout of Campbell is completed;
internal free agents Connor Brown, Corey Perry, Troy Stecher, Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark re-signed;
minor-leaguers Noah Philp, Noah Hoefenmeyer, James Hamblin re-signed;
external free agents Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Joshua Brown, Connor Carrick, Collin Delia all signed.Tue Jul 02 – Thu Jul 04: pause for breathFri Jul 05: forwards Ryan McLeod and Ty Tullio traded to Buffalo for prospect forward Matt Savoie.
Aftermath
Jackson revealed two major planks of his off-season plan in a brief interview with Elliotte Friedman just after the completion of Round One of the draft. Just two questions, each with a direct answer that laid out part of the plan.
On O’Reilly and the trade that acquired him:
“Our staff had him rated quite a bit higher than where he went. Rick [Pracey] felt strongly we were getting a player that would fit our mould. We gotta start getting our pipeline going.”
On Edmonton’s desire to bring back their internal free agents:
“Nothing imminent; we’re talking to them, obviously because we played so late we’re a bit behind the eight-ball; but we’ve had good discussions with all of the guys who are our own UFAs, and we’re optimistic we’re going to be able to bring all of them back and that’s our hope.”