Oilers Off-Season Checklist: Move off Yamamoto, make room for Holloway

EDMONTON — The line is thin, as GM Ken Holland tight-ropes into his off-season between satisfaction and impatience. 

Between, “Well, we’re close. And I don’t want to mess with a team that was as good as there was in the second half of the NHL season.” 

And, “We took a step back and it’s time to make some changes. Big changes.” 

Signing Evan Bouchard, choosing between an UFA troika of Mattias Janmark, Nick Bjugstad and Derek Ryan, and what to do with Kailer Yamamoto. All are issues for Holland to deal with. 

Here is our of-season checklist for the Stanley-Cup-or-bust Edmonton Oilers, the next Great Canadian Hope. 

Job 1: Move Kailer Yamamoto. 

Peter Chiarelli’s first-round pick in 2017 (22nd overall), Yamamoto is a cautionary tale on why you don’t draft 150-pound players unless they are wildly, wildly talented. 

You couldn’t ask for more compete or courage from Yamamoto, the former high-school wrestler who never met a corner he wouldn’t go into. But in the end, the old maxim, “Big and good beats small and good every time,” applies here. 

Yamamoto’s three-year averages — 13 goals, 29 points — while playing almost exclusively in the top six next to Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid, are pedestrian. His man games lost to injury — 55 in the past three years — speak to a player whose size cannot support his style. All of this for a cap hit of $3.1 million. 

An RFA after this season, he is a de facto pending UFA because Yamamoto will not be qualified at $3.2 million by any NHL team — barring a miracle season. You can find size that can defend much better and harder, while producing what Yamamoto produces — for less than half the price. 

That’s job No. 1 for Holland this summer: Clear that salary. 

Job 2: Make Room for Dylan Holloway. 

Edmonton’s four left wingers at season’s end were Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Warren Foegele and either Klim Kostin or Mattias Janmark. Holland’s job is to figure out which guy moves elsewhere — to right wing, to another team, wherever — so that Holloway can begin his NHL career. 

Holloway is ready to start a season in the NHL and needs to, so that when the big games come in May and June, he has a full season under his belt and is ready to be a factor. He should begin his career in the bottom six, and if that opening is created by platooning players through the second-line right-wing spot left open by Yamamoto, so be it. 

If the trade deadline arrives and a problem exists, Holland can address it at that time. For now, getting Holloway’s NHL career moving in earnest is paramount. Enough with slow-playing this player. 

Job 3: Which Veteran Depth Forward Goes? 

Nick Bjugstad was an excellent add at the deadline. Derek Ryan had 13 goals this season — 11 at even-strength, two shorthanded — and is as smart a player as we’ve ever seen. But he’s 36. 

When Janmark’s time came to show us why he was acquired, he was injured. Unfortunate. 

And the coach flat-out doesn’t like to play Devin Shore. If I’m Shore and can get a deal elsewhere, I’m outta here – no matter what Holland offers me. 

All are UFAs, but likely you can not return all of Bjugstad, Ryan and Janmark. The former two will want/deserve raises, and together the three averaged $1.13 million last season. That’s at the top end of what you should pay fourth-line players. 

I’m re-signing Bjugstad for sure — he’s a big, faceoff-winning, penalty-killing depth centre. He could get more money elsewhere but he’ll have to take a little less if he wants to play on a Cup contender in Edmonton. And I like one more year of Ryan, at no more than he made last season ($1.25 million). 

I’m saying so long to Janmark, and if I really miss him — or a player like him — I’ll find another one at the deadline. 

Job 4: How Can Edmonton Defend Better? 

Now, I might solve a big chunk of this problem with Jobs No. 1 and 3, but what is clear about these Oilers is, they don’t need to score more goals. They need to prevent more goals; to defend better. 

Edmonton finished 17^th in the 2022-23 regular season in goals against, allowing 3.12 per game. The Oilers allowed 3.50 in the post-season. 

On any serious contender, that number should start with a “2.” 

We’ve discussed the forwards. On defence, you’re keeping assistant captain Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard (RFA) and Philip Broberg, for sure. I’m keeping Brett Kulak, for sure, and I like Vincent Desharnais. He’s cheap, big, hard to play against and improving. He stays. 

So, we come to Cody Ceci, who has one year left at $3.25 million. 

Dealing underperforming contracts like Ceci and Yamamoto isn’t easy. And let’s say you can move Ceci, a defensive D-man who didn’t defend well enough in ’22-23 to justify his salary. Who do you bring in? 

Perhaps Ceci in a contract year returns to the mould of a solid, stay-at-home guy — exactly what Edmonton needs in that role. Maybe you change up your pairings, and give someone else the spot next to Nurse — not always the easiest place to play. 

But Holland needs to make a call here, because he needs a better group of six D-men to win a Stanley Cup. This group didn’t defend well enough, didn’t own its own net front often enough this spring when it counted.