{"id":863448,"date":"2025-07-18T22:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/18\/chokehold-will-edmonton-oilers-get-squeezed-out-in-brutal-sellers-market\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T22:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:13:18","slug":"chokehold-will-edmonton-oilers-get-squeezed-out-in-brutal-sellers-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/18\/chokehold-will-edmonton-oilers-get-squeezed-out-in-brutal-sellers-market\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chokehold’: Will Edmonton Oilers get squeezed out in brutal sellers’ market?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All this has Mark Mazza, an analyst who specializes in strategic analysis of hockey business and operations, writing<\/a> in an essay on the trade and free agent situation writing that: \u201cAt the moment, the NHL is experiencing a chokehold in the market. Having only one true seller (Pittsburgh) means there is a talent liquidity problem for everyone trying to get the players they want, more so than in an average year\u2026 Good teams will not be able to get the players they want when they become illiquid, and the middle teams will be able to fill the gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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He continues: \u201cAs the trade environment unfolds, there will likely be higher prices and fewer trades as teams are not matching potential partners\u2019 demands.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Mazza makes the following prediction: \u201cThis market will cause a shift in the NHL\u2019s power dynamics, as many impatient teams at the top lose steam and teams at the bottom pounce on their desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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\"Oilers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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My take<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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1. You\u2019re wondering \u2014 and I\u2019m wondering \u2014 what does this mean for the Oilers? The Oilers have already moved out Evander Kane and his $5.1 million cap hit in 2025-26 in order to create cap space. The Oilers got a fourth round pick and had to retain no salary for Kane in large part because Vancouver looked at the market and saw no cheaper option than Kane to fill a top line wing need (with free agent winger Brock Boeser moving out of Vancouver).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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But Kane\u2019s loss creates a void at the top of Edmonton\u2019s roster. Who will fill it?<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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2. Edmonton is also in danger of losing veteran free agents like Connor Brown and Corey Perry. There may not be enough cap space to offer them competitive contracts.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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There\u2019s also much talk about moving out winger Viktor Arvidsson and his $4.0 million cap hit for the coming year.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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But if the Oilers can\u2019t afford to keep any of Brown, Perry, Kane,\u00a0 Arvidsson of veteran free agents, and if Edmonton also loses out on free agents Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Skinner, the team will be down six wingers who saw action in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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This would come after Edmonton lost Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele last summer. That\u2019s a lot of talent on the wings that could go up in smoke in Edmonton as other NHl teams fill their salary cap space with Edmonton vets.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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3. On defence, John Klingberg played well against Los Angeles, VGK and Dallas in the playoffs, but it\u2019s looking likely he\u2019ll also be grabbed up by another team.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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4. Edmonton has to find cap space to pay star players like Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard next season, then Connor McDavid<\/a> the season after that. It\u2019s going to put the squeeze on Edmonton, one that is going to take every ounce of GM Stan Bowman\u2019s experience and guile to solve.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Players like newly-signed Trent Frederic, youngster Matt Savoie, young veterans Noah Philp and Vasily Podkolzin, newcomer David Tomasek, and veterans Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark, are going to have to come up big in helping out Edmonton\u2019s big four forwards, McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman. There is plenty of opportunity here, but also plenty of risk for the Oilers. We\u2019ve seen other forward groups on this team crash-and-burn due to a lack of quality wingers.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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5. Of course, the Oilers are likely going to be able retain one or two of Perry, Brown and Kapanen. The team might also want to think again about moving out Arvidsson too soon. Edmonton made a bad call last summer moving on from Foegele. With so few good players out there, Edmonton might well get solid value out of Arvidsson for one more year.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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\"GrA<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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At the Cult of Hockey<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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David Staples, Edmonton Journal
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article content All this has Mark Mazza, an analyst who specializes in strategic analysis of hockey business and operations, writing in an essay on the trade and free agent situation writing that: \u201cAt the moment, the NHL is experiencing a chokehold in the market. Having only one true seller (Pittsburgh) means there is a talent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":863449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122403,30900],"tags":[145373,43753],"class_list":["post-863448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chokehold","category-edmonton","tag-chokehold","tag-edmonton"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}