OEL Buyout Revisited

[F A N]

I know that most posters here disagree with me given the success of last season, but I wonder if sentiments have changed at the midpoint of the 2024-2025 season after seeing what has transpired.

Prior to the OEL buyout, I have maintained that we should just suck it up and buyout OEL in summer 2024. Instead, we bought out OEL in summer 2023 which led to around $7M in savings in 2023-2024. I can't find the comparison chart, but I'm 99% certain that by buying out OEL in Summer 2024 instead of 2023, it would have led to less dead cap every single year aside from this season on AND the dead cap would be on the books for one year less. If we bought out OEL in summer 2023, OEL's dead cap would be slightly less this year and is less than $3M every year.

Of course by buying OEL in summer 2023, there was a bit more than $7M in cap space freed up last year ($6.25M of which was spent on Soucy and Cole). Of course, we also had our fun last season.

I know a lot of posters think that the OEL buyout last season was neccessary for "culture change" reasons. But does the culture really change if we can't build upon the previous year's success? I think having a winning culture is important and players need to learn to win together, but has that goal been accomplished with the success of last season? Columbus pushed to make the playoffs with Panarin and Bob and they made the playoffs the following season. What followed was years of misery.

Maybe Quinn doesn't win the Norris last season and maybe we don't even make the playoffs. We then keep our 1st round pick. We could probably move a 2nd with Kuzmenko for an asset. Maybe Petey doesn't sign his extension. Maybe DeBrusk doesn't sign here or maybe he still does but for more money. Sherwood I think would still sign here as I think we gave him the best offer. Heinen would still sign here given he's local and we gave him a fair deal. It's possible one of Suter or Blueger won't be here. Maybe Joshua doesn't re-sign or maybe he does.

Don't forget that OEL, while historically a poor fit under Tocchet, remains a solid defenseman when healthy. Squeaking into the playoffs without an OEL buyout last season is not out of the question.

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[Killer Orcas]

It's unfortunate but we needed the cap space badly last season hence the buy out. The experience gained from the run last year also not only helped the players but the fans badly needed it as well. Sure be nice to have the pick still but another year of not making the playoffs would not have been good for anyone. The cap hit for OEL will hurt but with the cap moving up as much as 97 possibly (according to player agent Walsh) I think we'll be fine.

Quinn winning the Norris was worth whatever we did last year. OEL had to go and I don't hate the player but that deal was not good when signed and even worse when we traded for him. Sometimes you gotta move on. I'm happy he's doing well in Toronto now and beat the Oilers to win Cup last season !!