On Wednesday, Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli told the Edmonton media that he didn’t expect to be involved in the ‘star player’ portion of free agency. He also said that the club had talked to a few free agents and that they would be looking at depth players and bottom-six options.
The obvious question is, where is the money coming from for those guys? We might have an answer, as Andy Strickland out of St. Louis may have dropped a bomb on us this morning.
[protected-iframe id=”981b6ad3e5a1da5215e3da23a4b1be1c-142507471-51660995″ info=”hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” class=”twitter-tweet”]I’ve been on record the last few days saying that a Lucic deal makes more sense starting on July 2nd because it allows the club to pay his $3.5 million bonus and move him easier. If a team is wiling to write that check on Sunday, however, then that obviously changes things.
Lucic would be willing to waive his no-movement clause to play in Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose and Boston, and I wonder if he’s been convinced about one of Dallas, Florida or Carolina. I believe those last three teams showed a high level of interest in the player.
If the Oilers are able to finish this deal and move out Lucic, it opens up possibilities for them in free agency. There is significant interest in bringing Patrick Maroon back into the fold, and I’ve heard the Oilers also have interest in Michael Grabner as a top-six forward option.
Things could get very interesting, and open up a bit, for the Oilers if they are able to find a way to move Milan Lucic. If they are able to pull this off, I suspect the plan of adding bottom-six forwards will not change, but that a top-six option (Maroon) will be added as well.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
