Oilers Waive Eager

The Edmonton Oilers have placed veteran energy forward Ben Eager on waivers this afternoon. Eager is in year three of a three year contract that he signed with the Oilers on July 1st, 2011.

This move comes as a bit of a surprise to me. Eager had a decent training camp for the team, and fits the bigger bodied, functional toughness role that Dallas Eakins and Craig MacTavish have been talking about for a few months now. He’s not a flashy player, but he’s certainly better than alternatives like Mike Brown.

Eager was waived last year by the team and ended up finishing the season in OKC with the Barons, and was decent for them in the AHL playoffs last spring.

Eager simply never filled the role the Oilers had in mind for him when he signed a few summers ago. He was okay during the 2011-12 season with Edmonton, playing a physical game and creating a little bit of offense. He wasn’t great, but there was worse. Last year Eager took a major step back, and as a result found himself off the NHL roster mid-way through the shortened season.

Eager was okay at camp this year, and seemed to have earned a spot on the roster. That said, he was a healthy scratch and the Oilers don’t want to have too many of those guys sticking around this year. That comes from Dallas Eakins himself.

Eager’s cap hit is $1.1 M for the season, and the Oilers will now see that come off the books with this move. It frees up some very valuable cap space for a team that surprisingly needs every penny it can get.

The Oilers active roster is well below the league maximum as it currently stands, and one has to think a move or activation is coming soon. My bet is defender Denis Grebeshkov gets taken off the IR in the coming days, and may be available for the game on Saturday.

As for Eager, he might have just left the city of Edmonton for the last time as an Oiler. He failed to hold a job in a contract year, and appears to have been passed by Luke Gazdic and fellow minor league call-up Ryan Hamilton. Eager probably plays out the season in OKC and hopes to find a contract somewhere else in July.

I’d be shocked if he gets claimed, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens there. That said, I wish Eager the best of luck and hope it works out for him. I was rooting for him in camp, but it simply didn’t work out for him and the Oilers. It looks like the end of the line for Big Ben in Edmonton.