The Edmonton Oilers added one other participant to the combination for his or her playoff run, buying Nick Bjugstad from the Arizona Coyotes, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The Coyotes will obtain a 2023 third-round decide and Michael Kesselring, whereas retaining 50% of Bjugstad’s contract.
Bjugstad, 30, has by no means fairly lived as much as the excessive expectations from his early profession in Florida however has performed at a comparatively excessive degree for the Coyotes this season. With extra common ice time, a few of his offensive manufacturing has returned, and he brings measurement, physicality and flexibility to the underside six for Edmonton.
Standing 6-foot-6 and greater than prepared to make use of his body to lean on defenders, Bjugstad has scored 13 objectives and 23 factors in 59 video games this season. He received’t be anticipated to do a ton of scoring in Edmonton, however for $450K in cap area, he’s properly value a mid-round decide.
The Oilers are all-in, making an attempt to encompass Connor McDavid with sufficient firepower to win the Stanley Cup. Mattias Ekholm’s addition to the blue line already paid dividends Wednesday night time, and now Bjugstad can convey slightly extra punch down the center. A 3rd-round choice is meaningless to a staff like this, apart from its worth in commerce.
For Arizona, although, finishing one other short-term wage retention to squeeze a draft pick of Edmonton is nice work. The staff is as much as 22 picks within the high three rounds of the following three drafts and—if managed correctly—may flip that into fairly the pile of younger expertise.
Interestingly sufficient, as CapFriendly points out, the Oilers had precisely sufficient cap area to drag off this commerce after getting the Nashville Predators to retain wage on Ekholm Wednesday. Numerous eyebrows raised when the Predators solely held onto 4% of the whole, however it ended up being precisely what common supervisor Ken Holland wanted to usher in Bjugstad.
Discussion about this post