More I look at this deal the more I think the oilers will be viewed long term as the loser of the trade. They had to move McLeod due to cap reasons. I actually think Savioe wont do any damage in the NHL but McLeod was one of the reason the oilers PK and defence was so good this past playoffs
If Savoie never plays a game for us I'm not sure that we lost this trade. The Oilers are a team that is trying to win a cup and they needed to cut bait with our weak links to try and upgrade them so that hopefully next year we get over the hump.
Our weak links were: McLeod, Foegele, Ryan, Perry, Ceci and Nurse.
McLeod due to his speed and age has value to teams that aren't as close to competing for the cup but his $2.1 million deal was too rich to be a 4th liner here and he has arbitration eligibility at the end of the deal when we are trying to lock up Draisaitl, Bouchard and McDavid long term. McLeod is not the guy to do whatever it takes to win and that's what we need right now.
Foegele was inconsistent as all beat hell and like McLeod has good wheels but doesn't pay the price enough even though he is much better than McLeod in this regard but makes legitimately dumb plays frequently. Like McLeod he is a playoff ghost and overpaid for a guy that might see some 4th line ice time.
Ryan may or may not be a regular this season, I'm hoping that he's in the PB or sent down because he doesn't have it in him anymore to be a contributing bottom 6 option in the playoffs. No issue with heart or decision making here, guy is just about done as a pro hockey player.
Perry was pretty terrible but his leadership was a welcomed addition to the team. IMO you can have 1 guy like this in the lineup (veteran leader) if they aren't producing, not 2 of them which is why Perry probably sticks and Ryan sits or gets demoted to Bako.
Ceci may or may not be coming back. Lots of rumors about him being on the block but as of now he's still an Oiler. I'm hoping that they can somehow upgrade on him because we can't afford to have him and Nurse playing big roles on the team unless Nurse actually bounces back as a player.
Nurse is Nurse, completely overpaid and immovable. We are stuck with him and have to factor in him being a liability game after game. This is why it's so important to move out Ceci so that we hopefully only have one such player on D.
If Savoie pans out during his ELC this is a homerun for us, if he doesn't it allowed us to open cap up and remove the possibility of getting stuck with an inflated arbitration award that we can't stomach for a guy that hasn't shown the ability to carve out a spot in our core. Hopefully McLeod gives Buffalo what they wanted from him in this trade and Savoie does the same for the Oilers. Either way we cleared some cap out and our GM's job isn't done for this offseason just yet.