Toronto Maple Leafs Zach Hyman (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)Īs mentioned in today’s NHL Rumors Rundown post, during his 31 Thoughts podcast, Friedman said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Oilers try to sign Hyman in free agency. With the potential developments on that contract front and new comments from Friedman, I couldn’t help but think about that post again. At the time, it was still believed the Oilers would get an extension done with Nugent-Hopkins and that both sides were eager to work it out. Could the Oilers Take a Run at Hyman?Ībout two months ago, I wrote an article suggesting the Oilers consider Zack Hyman over Nugent-Hopkins. The other scenario is that the Oilers may have identified a player they’d rather target with that $6 million. In a flat salary cap market, there’s potential that two useful assets could be added which would make the Oilers a deeper team, more primed for an extended playoff run. First, the Oilers use the $6 million in cap space that comes from not re-signing Nugent-Hopkins and add a couple of players. There are two potential scenarios that could play out here. While there’s still plenty of time for a deal to be worked out and GM Ken Holland maintains he’d like to have the player back, it’s probably a money thing and questions about where the Oilers would rather spend that money have started to pop up.

He notes that there was a clear plan by the Oilers to bring Nugent-Hopkins back on an extension, but that throughout the season, talks have continually gone sideways and that getting these two parties back on the same page might be difficult. A number of insiders believe the two sides are keen to get a deal done and the player himself has said he’d like to stay in Edmonton, but NHL insider Elliotte Friedman notes that circumstances may have changed.įriedman wasn’t able to specify where things have gone off the rails, but he did say during a spot on SN960 that “something has happened here”.

When it comes to what the Edmonton Oilers may or may not do this offseason, the conversations seem to start with their plans for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

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