All the Edmonton Oilers can do between now and when the puck drops next season is bide their time, work the phones during free agency, and make the most out of their available assets to swing a monumental trade for that one final piece who will push the team over the hump.
This year’s run may have ended in a first-round exit, but with Connor McDavid one year away from being eligible for a contract extension, general manager Stan Bowman knows it’s now or never if he wants to keep his job.
With pressure rising in Edmonton, the Oilers have been linked with offer sheeting a bona fide scorer to give McDavid some more firepower next season.
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There appears to be some bad blood between the Oilers and their Pacific Division rivals. The Vegas Golden Knights are in no mood to do the Oilers any favors, blocking them (and the Los Angeles Kings) from interviewing Bruce Cassidy for the head coach role.
With the whole Cassidy saga devolving into a mess, if payback is the route the Oilers wish to go down, why not pry a reliable, young scorer away from their rivals?
At 25 and coming off a 35-goal season last year (and 37 this year + 10 in the playoffs), Pavel Dorofeyev is a prime candidate for an offer sheet for a team looking to add to their ranks. The Oilers fit that bill to a T, and the noise around a possible offer sheet is only growing.
NHL insider Jeff Marek was the latest to ponder what it might take for Edmonton to bring Dorofeyev to town. “Vegas is in a massive cap crunch, and here’s a guy, pencil him in for 30-35 goals every season on a star-laden team. I’ve wondered about Edmonton, playing with Connor McDavid, how much can this guy score?” Marek said.
He outlined what exactly it would take for the Oilers to pull off a move that will not only piss off their rivals but also take some of the load off McDavid.
“How does someone like Dorofeyev fit on a team like the Edmonton Oilers? In order for them to do that, at a number that Vegas is not going to touch, which would be $11.9 million, which wouldn’t cost them four first-round picks.
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“It would be two firsts, a second, and a third. They’d have to go out and get their own pick back from Nashville, their third-rounder. So it is doable by Edmonton,” Marek noted.
He added that if the Oilers truly want to take a big swing, the only available options are either a trade for Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson or swinging an offer sheet for Dorofeyev that falls outside Vegas’s range.
Dorofeyev is just wrapping up a contract with an AAV of $1.835 million. Estimates on his next contract range anywhere between $9 million and $11.9 million. The max range the Oilers can offer is six years, whereas Vegas can go up to seven under the new CBA rules.
Dorofeyev will get a payday this summer. The only question is, will it be in Sin City or in Oil Country?
