Once Schaefer & Misa get picked #1 & 2 it wouldn’t be surprising to see trades being made since after these two any of the remaining top 10 prospects could be named in random order. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see teams trade their first round picks for picks in next year’s draft which is expected to be a great draft. The habs have their sites on a few top prospects including Caleb Desnoyers so it wouldn’t surprise me if they traded up by using some of their many picks or prospects to do so.
Evander Kane, who returned for the Oilers in the playoffs after missing the entire regular season after multiple surgeries, was traded to his hometown Canucks on Wednesday, clearing cap space before free agency.
www.espn.com
Trade makes sense. Edmonton frees up much needed cap space to get some better goalie talent, while a soft Vancouver team gets a much needed injection of toughness on their roster.
Oilers are pretty much capped out. They had to give away Evander Kane today in order to clear up cap space to accommodate Leon Draisaitl’s big contract which will start kicking in next season. They also need cap space to re-sign defenceman Evan Bouchard who will be RFA next week & many believe he could be asking $9-10 million per season. Draisaitl contract will pay him $14 million per season which will make him the highest paid player in the NHL. His previous contract was paying him $8.5 million & was quite a bargain for the cap-constrained Oilers who will also be on the market to acquire an established quality goaltender which won’t come cheap!