Seravalli: Oilers tried to acquire Drew O'Connor last week, looking for a backup plan now with similar traits (big and fast) Holloway replacement

[Soundwave]

Just go get Klim Kostin for peanuts if you're Edmonton. Evander Kane probably is still better than Josh Anderson, why spend assets on that.

Kostin worked out well last time in Edmonton (so much so that he got higher offer elsewhere), but I think his heart is still in Edmonton. Couldn't say no to that much money, but he showed up to an Oilers game in the playoffs with his Oilers jersey (a bit bizarre but still).

He scored at a higher goals/game rate in the 2023 playoffs for Edmonton than Holloway did in 2024. He's probably more physical too. As a depth/13th forward I would say why not. The Sharks can't retain but a 3rd team could be brought in, his base salary is low so it would be peanuts to retain.

Sometimes for role players like that it just works better in a certain environment for whatever reason. He's a former 1st round pick too.

 

[AnInjuredJasonZucker]

There's not going to be any retention on Andersson though. That's simply not a thing that makes a shred of sense for Montreal. They aren't going to tie up a valuable retention slot for 2.5 years and 3 trade deadlines unless the Oilers are coughing up something huge. A 1st round pick basically. Probably more if they're also taking back a complete piece of dead weight like Skinner (NMC aside even). And even moving Arvidsson doesn't really offset the full length of Andersson.

Edmonton have to be thinking about long-term cap structure and where they put "excess luxury spending" on depth players because even with the cap going up, they're going to have $30M+ wrapped up in two players going forward.

You're going off on a tangent. I just said that the money can easily work without moving Nurse...which it can, even without retention.

And you're way off on the retention valuation and the Canadiens reluctance to do so. Petry and Allen come off the books, and it cost very little to get them both retained.