Oilers Re-Sign Iiro Pakarinen, Talking to Gryba

The Edmonton Oilers re-signed one of five pending RFA’s this afternoon. The team, according to the official Twitter account, brought back Finnish F Iiro Pakarinen on a one-year deal.

The #Oilers have signed Iiro Pakarinen to a one-year contract. pic.twitter.com/MCpJtSr8cO

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 27, 2016

The terms of the contract were not released by the club, but team insider Bob Stauffer tweeted out the following monetary details for the deal.

Iiro Pakarinen gets 725K/ 1 way 1 year deal

— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) June 27, 2016

So, that’s a one-year, one-way contract that clocks in at $725,000 per season. For a fourth line forward, that’s a pretty decent deal for the Oilers. By my count, it’s the fourth RFA that Peter Chiarelli (Kassian, Pitlick, Oesterle) has re-signed this off-season to a team friendly contract.

The Impact:

This signing makes sense for the hockey club on a number of different levels. Pakarinen is still a young player (24 years old) who plays the kind of style that Chiarelli and Todd McLellan love. He’s a gritty player who provides a ton of energy and plays an extremely physical game.

The offense isn’t there with this player, only 5-8-13 in 63 games this season, but he does enough other things to be a valuable depth piece for the hockey club.

In terms of usage for the 2016-17 season, I’d imagine that we see Pakarinen compete for a spot on Edmonton’s fourth line, likely as the right winger. It’s also possible that Pakarinen serves as the team’s 13th or even 14th forward for the upcoming season.

I also would not be surprised if, along with Lauri Korpikoski, Pakarinen serves as a mentor to the recently drafted Jesse Puljujarvi.

Talking With Gryba:

TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reports that the Oilers are talking with the camp for UFA Eric Gryba.

Talks have been had between Gryba camp and Oil, I believe there’s a good chance they sign him. PC has to wait until after potential trades.

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) June 27, 2016

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There has been interest from other teams in Gryba, but priority is to stay w Oil. That said, July 1 all bets are off. I think it gets done

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) June 27, 2016

This isn’t overly surprising, as Gryba plays a physical style and a shut-down game. Chiarelli always employed players like this in Boston and McLellan always played guys like this in San Jose. If he returns, I expect Gryba to get a multi-year deal that comes in at around $2.5-$3 million per season.

Personally, I would not re-sign Gryba. He’s good for his role, but Edmonton has enough 6/7/8 defenders. On top of that, as demonstrated by Boston’s signing of Kevan Miller, Gryba is likely to command a contract that is too rich for what he brings to the table.

I’d let the player go to July 1st and, eventually, walk as a free agent. Rishaug seems confident that this will not be the case, however.

We wait.

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