Buyout candidates for the Edmonton Oilers this offseason

This is an affordable buyout as the team would save $2.67M this coming season and only costs $1.33M next season as the cap continues to rise. It would coincidence with even more players, notably Connor McDavid, due a raise, but it is a situation the team could live with if needed.

The preference and suggestion, however, is that the team explores the trade market for Kane instead to avoid the buyout.

Viktor Arvidsson

Viktor Arvidsson was supposed to be a new second line winger and give Leon Draisaitl more offensively talented players to elevate his game. This signing turned into anything but that. Arvidsson found himself in and out of the lineup through the playoffs and was generally unimpactful.

Much the same as Kane, Arvidsson’s cap hit could be spent better elsewhere.

Arvidsson has one more year left on his contract with a $4M AAV. Due to the way the buyouts are calculated, his buyout structure is identical to Kane’s. A $2.67M saving in 2025–26 and a $1.33M penalty in 2026–27.

Much the same as with Kane, the preference would be to see if Arvidsson would waive his no movement clause and handle this via trade instead. But if the situation arises, a buyout like this is manageable. The Oilers would likely only buy out one of these two forwards at some point over the offseason.

Darnell Nurse

Once again, a point of struggle for the Oilers was what to do with Darnell Nurse in the playoffs. He struggled with nearly every defensive partner, with the exception of Troy Stecher before the Cup Final began. And routinely was part of a pairing that got fasted on by the opposition.

His contract is one of the worst in the league, with five more years at a $9.25M cap hit. Although we now know that this is not a completely untradeable contract (thanks Seth Jones), it would not be an easy move to make.

One other option to get his contract off the books is a buyout. Now, full disclosure. This is not a realistic option given the cost and length, which exceeds for two seasons past the screenshot.

The Oilers would experience massive savings next season, with an additional $8.96M in cap space. But years two through five of the buyout period would be brutal for the team. $8.29M in dead cap in year two with $9.09M in dead cap in years three, four, and five.

Although the joke could be made that an empty roster spot is sometimes more beneficial to the lineup, with only $160k in cost savings in those three worst years, there would be little to no benefit to the team.

Afterwards, the Oilers would be on the hook for just $1.04M for five additional years.

This might be a more reasonable route if the team were not still trying to compete and didn’t need the cap space. But there is no justifying taking up nearly 10% of the cap on a player’s buyout. If the Oilers were to move on from Nurse, it would come through a trade similar to Seth Jones.

Mattias Janmark

We all know the legend of playoff Mattias Janmark. And we did see that for a few games this postseason. But aside from that, we got an entire regular season where he did not score on a shot on a goalie (his two goals were an empty net and an unintentional deflection) and a playoff run with a few big moments but nothing monumental.

With two more seasons at a $1.45M cap hit, Janmark is a cheap and easy option to buy out to save a small amount of money over the next couple of seasons with a minimal penalty afterwards.

The Oilers would save slightly more than $1M next season and $717k the season after. That would help cover the bonus overage and most of a replacement level fourth line player. The seasons after, however, it does not provide much benefit. Savings of $717k in year two wouldn’t cover a replacement player, and there is a penalty of $433k in years three and four. Although a small amount, it is still part of what makes this difficult to justify.

Unless there is an impending legendary fourth line player at league minimum for the 2025–26 season, the practical benefit of this move just is not there. The cost savings wouldn’t really be enough to replace Janmark.

For the Oilers, most of the rest of the roster is either already on an expiring deal, or is part of the untouchables that would never be considered in this discussion. But, these are the four main candidates who could find themselves in this process as the buyout window opens or later this offseason if trades do not work out.