The Oilers have taken care of one of their pending restricted free agents as they announced the re-signing of forward Devin Shore to a two-year contract. The deal carries an AAV of $850K, with CapFriendly clarifying that he will make the league minimum of $750K next season and $950K in 2022-23.
The 26-year-old was non-tendered last fall by Columbus and had to settle for a PTO deal with Edmonton in late December, one that he was able to convert to a two-way contract. Shore wound up spending most of the season with the Oilers, getting into 38 games where he had five goals and four assists. While he did clear waivers a couple of times as the Oilers shuffled several veterans back and forth from their taxi squad, he clearly made enough of an impression to stick around, earning himself a one-way deal in the process.
Shore spent most of this past season in a depth role, often playing on the fourth line when he was in the lineup, and it stands to reason that he’ll have a similar role throughout this contract. The Oilers, like many teams, will be relying on cheap depth to free up a little bit of wiggle room on the salary cap, and that will allow Shore to stick around for a couple of more years.
General manager Ken Holland still has plenty of work to get to before free agency begins. He has a trio of other restricted free agents to re-sign while 11 others will soon see their contracts expire as pending unrestricted free agents, so there should be several signings to come over the coming weeks.
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