Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Oiler Prospects and their waiver situations

In the last couple of summers we have seen the Oilers offer one way contracts, at somewhat reduced rates, to some of their about-to-be waiver eligible players. Marc Pouliot, Kyle Brodziak, JF Jacques, Mathieu Roy and Jeff Deslauriers have all been given one way contracts in some form or another prior to becoming waiver eligible.

It remains to be seen whether EDM will do the same with any of their notable players/prospects this summer, but here are the notable players who will have to clear waivers to go to the AHL for the 2009/10 season (last season's NHL salaries in brackets):

Liam Reddox (515K)

Rob Schremp (650K)

Ryan Stone (550K)

Ryan Potulny (645K)

Gilbert Brule (765K)

Note: I bumped this post after re-reading the CBA section in question, having found I made a mistake. Brule clearly DOES have to clear waivers to go to the minors for the 2009/10 season. As soon as you play 11 or more NHL games as an 18 or 19 year old, your ELC starts to tick and you only have 3 seasons of waiver ineligiblity, even if you don't play in the NHL in seasons 2 and 3 of your ELC. Brule played 78 NHL games in 06/7, meaning that he has played all 3 seasons of his ELC and he now has to clear waivers to be sent to the AHL. Sorry for any confusion.

5 comments:

PunjabiOil said...

Potulny is a guy I'd like the Oilers to retain.

The Oilers will also have to make a decision between Stone and Jacques.

speeds said...

I wonder if some team might sign one of these guys, probably Brule, to an offer sheet? Signing Brule at 1.3 mil would only cost a 3rd rounder as comp, I could see a young rebuilding team make such a move. Not a lot to lose.

RiversQ said...

Maybe not a lot to lose, although one wonders how paying Brule nearly triple the minimum salary makes sense to any team?

I would almost welcome that sort of thing with the Oilers. It seems to me that the Oilers wait far too long on a lot of their prospects. Maybe I'm wrong, but they rarely manage to move a prospect for a valuable chip of any kind. If someone decides to push them on someone like Brule, maybe it's not such a bad thing? They get a 3rd round pick instead of beating his value down.

Of course, if they then proceed to match RFA offer sheets on marginal prospects, I'll go through the roof. Perhaps it's best not to hope for that kind of situation.

speeds said...

I heara what you're saying RQ, but I'm sure there's a GM out there who thinks they can "fix" whatever's wrong with Brule - former first round picks tend to get more chances than the average player might. And if they do get him back on track, they'll have a young player under team control, a player who might fit in the window of a rebuild.

Brule, at 22, is still young enough to be worth the gamble in the eyes of a team or two, I would expect. I'm not saying they would or wouldn't be right, only that I'd be surprised if at least one team didn't think they could fix him.

spOILer said...

Congrats Speeds on your Brule call.