More To Oilers Recall Than Meets The Eye
Training camp is over, but the Oilers still had one surprise move up their sleeve.
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That came in the form of top prospect Matt Savoie's recall from the AHL. The news came as a big surprise, considering Savoie was sent down to Bakersfield on September 29th, seemingly delaying his Oilers debut. That debut will still have to wait, it seems.
Rather than making a big bet on a young player, the Oilers are engaging in a little bit of cap gymnastics. Savoie carries a cap hit of $1,886,666 for each of the next three seasons, a million of those dollars in the form of a signing bonus. Having Savoie on the opening night roster (opening night being Tuesday, not the Oilers' opener on Wednesday) shifts that bonus to the LTIR pool, effectively lowering his cap hit by a million dollars.
That also gives the Oilers an incentive to use LTIR. Though the plan is to keep Evander Kane on the Injured Reserve to accrue cap space during the season, this move implies that they're at least considering putting Kane on LTIR and freeing up cap space that way.
The Oilers also announced a two-way contract for forward Cam Wright, with a cap hit of $925,000, for similar cap reasons.
With only $53 -- yes, you read that right, fifty-three dollars -- in cap space after Monday's moves, this is the kind of move the Oilers will have to make all season long. The upside is that their LTIR pool now sits at just over $5.1 million, offering them another degree of flexibility.
All that being said, the Oilers still have one contract to add to the ledger in the form of Travis Dermott. Dermott is still with the Oilers after joining them on a PTO, and it looks like he's made the team. He'll certainly get a contract in the next couple of days, even if it's a two-way deal.
Time will tell how the Oilers want to flex their limited cap flexibility, but Monday's moves show that they're capable of thinking ahead and being proactive when it comes to the salary cap.
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