The Edmonton Oilers signed Kasperi Kapanen this morning, the deal is one-year, $1.3 million. The team also signed RH center Noah Philp, $775,000 on a one-year deal. Both players have a real chance to play for the Edmonton Oilers in the coming year.
For Kapanen, a waiver claim, the 1.17 points-60 and 35 percent goal share (both at five-on-five) were pedestrian and poor, respectively. His 51 percent expected goal share is encouraging, and of course he was better in the playoffs (with a poor expected goal share, completing the regression from the regular season totals).
I’d put Kapanen as the No. 5 right-wing on the roster. Zach Hyman leads the way, Viktor Arvidsson is here until he isn’t, David Tomasek should impact the team here, Matthew Savoie should play the entire year in a middle-six role, and then Kapanen. That’s a roster spot for sure, with Max Jones, Quinn Hutson and Roby Jarventie all in the mix.
We don’t know about Connor Brown or Corey Perry, that’ll impact the depth chart if either signs. Once Arvidsson is dealt, Kapanen lands in the top 12 forwards, and you (or the Oilers) may like him more than Savoie.
Noah Philp had a 56 percent goal share and a 56 percent expected goal share five-on-five in 15 games with the Oilers last season. The downbeat? A .90 points-60 and his boots looked a little slow when he was going hell bent for leather on the backcheck. I like him for the Oilers, he looked plenty fast enough in preseason, maybe he had a hitch in his giddyup.
I count Philp as the No. 5 center on the team. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Adam Henrique (or the Nuge swapping with Henrique) is the heart of the order. I think Mattias Janmark enters summer as the fourth center, followed by Philp and then James Hamblin. Lots of wingers who could play center, including Trent Frederic and David Tomasek, but I like Philp for his PK, faceoff, outscoring skills. He’s a good player. Honest.
I think it’s good the Oilers are close to the cap. Why? Mistakes are made on July 1 that have far reaching impact. On July 2, 2016, after the Hall-Larsson trade and Milan Lucic signing, I wrote “Peter Chiarelli is overpaying for these things, and there is reason to be concerned. Just because a team has all manner of assets does not mean the general manager can play fast and loose with the real gold. No matter how you feel about this week—and the additions are very nice—the years of Taylor Hall just sent away are very concerning. We need to acknowledge that, and by that I mean understanding in our own minds the price paid this summer to tunnel through to a respectable defense.”
The Oilers need to make room for value deals. I think we can suggest today that Matt Savoie, David Tomasek, Vasily Podkolzin are such contracts, and you might be able to add Kapanen, Philp, Atro Leppanen and Roby Jarventie to that list (depending on performance) next season. Stan Bowman needs to sign value contracts and avoid a Luciceberg at all costs.
Today on the Lowdown, we review the draft and look forward to free agency. Jason Gregor will join us and we’ll chat about the new picks and contracts, noon to 2 on Sports 1440.
New for The Athletic: Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects ranking, summer 2025 edition
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6459651/2025/06/30/oilers-prospects-ranking-summer-2025/
Pretty impressive year 1 for this management team. The popular term now is dog, and they are certainly looking for them. The future looks much brighter today, and I hope the development team can make an impact. You can’t teach will and heart, so makes sense to use it as the prerequisite and develop from there.
Thanks for the update LT.
Cam Wright not being qualified makes sense. The only reason he got an NHL deal last year was so they could get the exact cap hit they needed prior to putting Kane on LTIR to maximize their LTIR reserves. He is a good and solid AHL player and I presume the Condors will sign him to an AHL deal.
I’m surprised they didn’t qualify Rodrigue – maybe they do have plans on Samuel J. coming over to North America – I figured a season in the SHL first made sense. I’m looking forward to Nathanial Day’s first year pro.
Where are all the stories about pressure from NHLPA to push salaries for these sweet Florida deals?
The histrionics in the comments in here today are absolutely fascinating.
There is so much wrong with what went on and what is still going on in Florida. The rest of the league’s players have 3 choices going forward. 1) collect their regular season paychecks, FU to the league and let it live with the cesspool it has created 2) chase #2 year after year 3) run the Panthers, start with Bib (sorry you might be a nice guy) every single shift of every single game, for 84 games straight, anything goes. I would be solidly in the #3 camp.
Give Andrei’s kid a shot if he’s still around later in the summer: https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=213172
@JasonGregor
The Oilers did not submit qualifying offers to:
Olivier Rodrigue
Cameron Wright
Jacob Perreault.
All are now free agents.
5:23 PM · Jun 30, 2025
Good luck to Cam Wright especially. Really enjoy that type of hockey player.
Sail on beach ball Rodrique.
Pretty sure Marchand can’t just go on LTIR because he’s old. The CBA had the 35+ clause to ensure Florida has 5+ mil against the cap for the next 6 years
Don’t worry Brad will suffer a severe allergic reaction due to a cheesecake dessert in summer 2028 and be forced into an early retirement. The real question is which team will be the modern day Coyotes desperate to hit the salary floor by then?
Why not a Marchand-style contract for Perry? What numbers work for Edmonton? 4 x 1.5M? That puts him $1M over the rumoured 2 x $2.5M.
I like Boeser, he’s had some tough time since losing his dad and with his illness before that. But these numbers without Hughes are absolutely scary. Change of scenery may help but there’s a good chance whoever signs him regrets it and quickly
https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerreport.php?fromseason=20242025&thruseason=20242025&stype=2&sit=ev&stdoi=oi&rate=n&v=t&playerid=8478444
https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playerreport.php?fromseason=20232024&thruseason=20232024&stype=2&sit=ev&stdoi=oi&rate=n&v=t&playerid=8478444
and the year before is only slightly better
If Bowman signs Boesser for significant money tomorrow, it will be a death knell for the McDavid Oilers long term Cup aspirations.
After Holland and Chia, Bowman was tasked with a situation where there was zero room for error cap wise. Signing a mediocre winger to a bloated contract would be such a mistake.
Unfortunately, there is very little in Bowman’s track record that demonstrates he is a true big-brained general manager.
The Oilers should absolutely not sign Boeser. He’s really bad. He has a good shot and that’s it. He can’t create for himself at all, and is slower than any current Oiler. He also can’t defend.
The Dys are letting him walk because he’s asking for 8×8 and has scored over 30 goals once in his career.
The Canucks management team is bad and even they know that Boeser’s contract is a guaranteed poison pill.
Yikes. I know where this is going. Because Oilers
Some team is going to end up desperate enough to make the mistake, but I don’t think the Oilers have the cap space which is its own blessing. Even moving Arvidsson only gets them halfway there.
Agreed, I don’t think there’s a realistic path here
Well when they keep taking the maximum amount of money they can, these Oilers don’t then get to turn around and tell us how winning is the most important thing. Spare me.
So we are paying 250k more for Bouch and Frederik than the Panthers are paying for Ekblad and Bennett.
Looks good now and will look even better a couple years from now.
So, after being the #1 for back-to-back Cup winners, Aaron Ekblad negotiated a contract that pays him LESS than his last one? Alright; there is something going on beyond no-tax and “I’ll take less to play for a winner.”
live in Miami, play for a two time cup winner, no state tax.
Im surprised that more of the owners don’t have a problem with this
If Nurse was a free agent and going to sign tomorrow, what would his price range be?
Obviously taking in his minutes played, points, comparable etc.
I’d look at the recent Romanov contract as comparison?
6.5 mil
Based on the rumored Marchand AAV ($5.33 million), I don’t see how the Panthers make the cap without trading Rodrigues.
Unless there are easy performance bonus clauses in the first year of the contract instead of signing bonuses.
— Hope the Bouch 4 years isn’t an omen for McD
— the end is nigh if they can’t reup max him
— I mean yeah they have a few more kicks in can but a 4 year deal would really suck IMO.
I would not be surprised if McDavid said “give me the same as Leo”
Wait, was that a day dream?? Could happen if agents and union were not pushing him as hard as they can.
Stauffer has been talking 4 or 5 year deal for weeks and justifies his guess based Judd Moldaver’s history.
Honestly, is McD only signs for 4 years, so be it. He deserves anything and everything.
The 80s superstars didn’t play here past 8+ years, why should he?
No movement clauses on Bouchard’s contract.
The Panthers abuse PED’s,Narcotics and now i think they’re outright circumventing the cap. With off shore accounts hidden behind the owner’s billionaire friends and digital currency like Bitcoin it couldn’t be easier to hide an extra few million for Ekblad & Bennett off the books. You think Gary gives a $#%!? They could get caught red handed and he’d assign Colon Campbell to go investigate his own son and he’d do it with a straight face.
I like the way Snrub thinks.
Anyone still believe the league wanted “parity”
Why is nhl ok with a contract that goes to 43.
See below. If it’s front loaded or has big signing bonuses, they won’t get away with it. Marchand just may be an idiot who doesn’t understand that he has to play it out to get the full salary.
What if the Panthers’ dgaf about the rule of law, knowing that the judicial branch is in their pocket?
Won’t they just use LTIR, like the Carey Price and Shea Weber contracts? You can even trade those contracts. Which, given where the cap is going might even be an asset and not a liability.
Marchand doesn’t have to play it out though. At age 41 he can just say his continuously growing nose is now blocking his vision and its no longer safe for him to continue to play. He goes on LTIR for 2-3 years and gets the rest of his money.
Florida trades his contract to a rebuilding team for a 3rd and the NHL front office rejoices.
And if the Oilers tried this, there would be an investigation and draft picks going to Calgary.
The league is completely bent.
I think its very possivle that in 10 years the Panthers organization will be in the Mark McGuire / Lance Armstrong category of shameful champions and the hockey world will look back at this era of Oilers hockey in a very different light.
Will have to see the terms of Marchand contract and what CBA rules apply. Florida may have done this knowing full well that Marchand can retire before the end without incurring cap hits beyond.
If it’s front loaded, or signing bonuses beyond the first year, then the hit stays no matter when he retires. If none of those things happen, he can retire when he wants but then they don’t have to pay him or incur cap hit. The latter wouldn’t benefit him, unless he truly intends to play until he’s 43, so it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for him to sign this because it’s not guaranteed money.
As this offseason progresses, I become more pessimistic that the McD Oilers will ever win a Cup.
Miles to go, chin up good sir.
Me too
When you count up all the ghastly mistakes from ChiaPete, Holland, Jackson, and Bowman in the previous 10 years it’s truly embarrassing, yet not surprising this has happened.
— well at least I’m deep agent causing chaos in leaf land.
—“Bennett would look so good in leafs uniform and he says he likes traditional hockey markets”
— “McD wants to come home and play with his buddy Matthews”
—. Haha : I tell them now Austin one foot out the door. Piss poor asset management: I’m loving it!
— But but Toronto is the centre of hockey universe. Everyone wants to play here …
I don’t care about the Leafs, their fans or the centre of the hockey universe. Their shortcomings do not make me feel better about our Oilers
Well, off-season optimism and pessimism are not the best predictors of the season. Florida looks tough, but like everybody they need to stay healthy to go long.
Bouch at 10.5 x 4? Meh, I don’t mind the cap but it should have been 8. Bowman needs to watch what Zito is doing, there will be no cap value if they have to pay him and Connor 20M extra in 4 years
He’s made almost a third of what Ekblad has and juice master made the league straight from his draft
I suppose Zito has some Cups as leverage
Oilers players need to watch what the Florida players are doing. What’s Bowman supposed to do … walk away when his star players refuse to take home team discounts?
Bowman must have a plan but. Florida has a lot of their top players locked in for 5 years and there’s only 4 over 8M not counting Bob. When he comes off they will have say 4M from that and what ever the cap raises. Ugly
Obviously we have no idea how the negotiations progress, but it’s clear that the Oilers are paying more for their players than the Panthers are. The Oilers are getting little to no discounts. This should be part of the discussions between GM and players/agents.
My gut says they aren’t presented team friendly deals. Because Jackson. It’s a player friendly environment. Nobody’s taking discounts.
You think Bouchard would have signed for leas than Nurse? 10-11 mil was the predicted number for months.
SS clearly said the term doesn’t create value for the team. And he’s right.
Yes, my bad. I read it as 8 million not 8 year term.
This contract seems more player friendly than team friendly. The Jeff Jackson relationships/conflicts of interest seem to create slightly more player friendly contracts and one can anticipate more of the same for the McDavid contract. These players won’t be on team friendly deals. McDavid will be something like 4 x 16.5 or 17.5 following this pattern.
I literally don’t understand how Vegas is able to get away with this. If Pietrangelo is on IR, they still have to ice a cap compliant team come playoffs. And they are trying to get Andersson? The only way this makes sense is if Hertl is going the other way
Pietrangelo’s mysterious injury that has him on LTRI already, but barely kept him out of any games last season and none in the playoffs.
How’s that investigation in the oilers going Gary?
9 mil added with shedding Roy. They had 2.6 cap space before.
So 6.4 roughly over.
8.8 for Pietrangelo. He would have to miss nearly the entire year, I think, for them to be cap compliant.
And they still need to pay for another D to replace him for the time being, and he won’t be free.
This a Dallas style strategy, all O, no D
Really don’t understand how they do this without getting rid of more players.
They still have Stone to go to LTIR, so Andersson should be easy to accommodate.
Right on cue … Pietro is on the LTIR with a long term injury. He’ll be making a miraculous recovery sometime around late March.
So Marner is a Vegan for the next 8 years ($12M AAV). I wonder what they gave up in that trade?
Marchand re-signing with Florida… Next year feels like a throwaway year – that team is unbeatable.
Agreed. The only way they lose is the way lost three years ago: injuries.
Well they have been remarkably healthy for their last two playoffs.
PEDs can do that for a professional athlete, just sayin.
6 years for a 37 year old. I was hoping they would do something stupid like this
They don’t care about the extra years. They want to be a dynasty team that wins 3-4 Cups in a row. Immortality.
Our top players just want to get paid as much as they can, cause they’re worried about blowback from the players union or some other such nonsense.
When they said they want to bring tampering charges to make an example they clearly meant to say tampering charges against a Canadian team
It amazes me how many players want to play in Vegas with how Vegas treats its players.
Pays them well and always tries everything to win? In a hell of an interesting town?
Sounds pretty great.
Most of these guys don’t seem to want a quiet existence in one or two towns for their career. Might have to adjust that frame of reference.
And live in relative anonymity, which a lot of players prefer.
So we overpayed and got term on the bottom 6 forward and we got half the term our franchise d. That makes sense
I have a post on here that is “awaiting approval”. I’ve never seen that before. Is that something that comes up when certain keywords are used, am I flagged personally, is it random? Strange
Prediction:
McD also signs for 3-4 years.
If the Oilers don’t win the next 3-4 years Bouchard and McD are gone.
Yeah, looks like its McMercenary.
More like McJudgment. The Oilers’ management pooped away the best years of McD’s career, and he’s calling it out. I have a better feeling with the new crew.
McDavid doesn’t owe anyone max term contracts. He already signed one with us.
I’m slightly more optimistic and he signs so that he ends his contract same time as Drai. So that would be 6 years I think?
You might be right. I think it’s more to do with them being competitive
That’s a very expensive contract for Bouch without the term. Florida signs everyone and shaves some cap, we pay that little bit extra
And they wonder why they can’t win.
Eh. Apples to oranges. Bouchard had RFA years plus he has been nickel and dimed by Holland’s bridge deals and over ripening strategy.
Don’t RFA years come cheaper than UFA years?
To be fair, Bouchard is a much better player than Bennett and Ekblad.
He makes more mistakes then both of them combined, that’s for sure. Otherwise great offence, and pretty good defence during the playoffs, leading to the final few games.
I have a bad feeling McDavid’s next contract is going to be 3-4 years.
What kind of money is Marchand looking for?
4x $10.5 for Bouchard. Thoughts?
A win for both sides IMO.
Pure value for that deal but, before the Dobson signing, that AAV may have been available for 8 years.
Bouchard is certainly with more than $1MM more than Dobson.
The speculation yesterday was $9.5 * 4.
I’m not seeing any discounts for the Oilers this offseason.
Should have got more term at that price. Very good deal for Bouchard.
Bowman can’t seem to win on value or term.
Isn’t there an RFA year in there? If this is our cup window, the purpose of the 4 year would have been to reduce AAV.
Won’t gripe about it because he earned it, but it is certainly a contrast to the more team friendly deal Ekblad took so that his team could add another piece
Two RFA years.
Ekblad deal isn’t really comparable as he’s already finished and 8 year big money deal, is already at the end of his prime and starting to regrsss and this contract is for almost fully regression years.
Ekblad is finished? He’s 29. Nurse is 30, Ekholm is 35. I’m not following.
And the PEDs use will keep him strong for years to come.
Not quite: shorter term = higher AAV, longer term = lower AAV.
Not in an inflationary cap environment.
That logic applies to pure UFA years. But in the case of 2 RFA years, the AAV should be lower for a 4 year deal compared to an 8.
Love it. Unless Puckpedia is not up to date, there aren’t any NMC or NTCs in the deal despite being eligible in years 3 and 4. To me, that’s a bigger deal than the term. Cap hit is about where I thought it would be, though it’s always going to be too high
I wouldn’t be keen on signing Boeser. A slow shooter with limited two-way ability isn’t what I believe will push this team over the hump. Similar to Skinner last year, I think this would be indicative of a management group that’s either failing to identify the problem or not targeting the right solutions.
The Wild traded for Tarasenko. Would they do that if they had Boeser locked up?
6.1 million AAV for Ekblad. Nurse’s contract is an abomination.
Look forward to tuning in for Gregor telling us that Florida don’t get discount contracts
Ekblad up at Puckpedia 6.1 x8
6.25 x8
Big win for steroids on that one
18 players 4.9M in cap
That is a pretty reasonable deal for the Panthers. They basically keep the band together for another five seasons (Bob is the only notable UFA in the next five years afaik).
Pretty impressive. I could definitely see them winning another cup or two over that period.
Zito is definitely in the top tier of GMs. Still blows my mind that the Oilers picked famous hockey man over Zito.
Given he’s in prime and took 1.4M less sure is
No Tax in Florida really helps.
It does some, but it’s not a huge difference. He wanted to stay so he took a pay cut is the bottom line, don’t see that often from a 29YO assistant cpt 2 time Cup winner. Players sign in New York and California and they have high taxes
When the cap jumps again they are going to have money with their top 6 and top 4 locked in at 10M and under and Bob will be off the books
I hope Connor signs at 14.5M
Zito wasn’t in the Guide and Record book.
Good ol’ Juicebox.
Boeser is a 50 point player idk why he’s so highly touted
It’s the goals.
Money dependent; with the passing ability the Oiler posses, a scorer like Boesar could be huge.
is he better than Jeff Skinner?
(not suggesting the Oilers sign Skinner)
Hoping for Ehlers, scared about a Boeser contract. Mangiapane could be a good pickup for much less.
Wonder how much we offer Jake Allen?
Either of Ehlers or Boeser would be equally good at probably the same cap hit, whatever that might be. I’ve always hated Mangiapane so he’s most likely a great fit with Frederic on the third line and I’m hoping Tomasek is a revelation 3c for Edmonton as well Philp at 4c both RHC’s. If they do decide on Allen, I can’t see them paying him more than Skinner’s $2.6M.
I like Ehlers, but he’ll be 30, is broken and small
Ehlers is my choice as well.
Cam Fowler is in St. Louis. St. Louis desparately needs a middle 6 centre. Henrique would get to play between Neighbours and Bolduc at worst on the 3rd line, or Holloway and Kyrou.
Armstrong may have asked Cam to give Adam a call to help recruit him, and get him to waive his no move.
The consistent trend of small (300-500k) overpayments on the roster is a genuine issue. Arguments like “but it’s buriable” or “but it’s just a couple hundred thousand” don’t discount that it’s become a trend and one that has cost the team. 300-500k extra on all of Janmark, Kapanen and (likely) Frederic adds up to something around 1 to 1.5mil in cap space. In the grand scheme of things that may not seem like that much but that makes a difference in who they could target at the deadline. Further, that likely would’ve meant the difference between being able to easily match the Holloway offer sheet and not last year.
I understand that they’re paying the guys that really went to war in the postseason, but this just isn’t wise. Let him go to market and try to get this from another contender after just being on waivers. The player himself said last season that [para.] “this may be my last chance in the league”; he’s exactly the kind of player you ought to squeeze. On the bright side, at least there isn’t term to this one.
And that is just the aggregate overpay on depth players, to say nothing of all overpays on the roster, like Nurse who makes $2m too much.
And all the dead cap space from previous buy-outs.
Add it up and there’s a first line winger right there.
There must be a super deal out there for the Oilers. Somebody not on the radar, fallen out of favor, or needs moved in a hurry. Somebody that comes with low expectations but huge potential. Can they find him?
I expect the Oilers will sign Brock Boeser. I expect LT is hearing similar based on the title of today’s post.
Reading LT’s titles as tea leaves, omens of truths yet unspoken. I will sit and wonder…
2 Mutts Hockey Podcast
@2MuttsHockeyPod
·
41s
The #LetsGoOilers are working on finalizing two trades.
Adam Henrique & Victor Arvidsson by the end of today.
They plan on making announcement on the Evan Bouchard contract extension as well today.
Busy 24 hours for the @EdmontonOilers
organization.
They want as much cap space for tomorrow as they possible can get according to sources close to the situation.
We believe others in the city had this information as well.
They’re clearing cap space for Marner.
I think the Leafs and Vegas are near a trade that would send Marner to Vegas according to Friedman.
Stauffer was hinting at Boeser being the one the Oilers have their eyes on.
We’ll see. Marner still has an NMC until July 1 that he doesn’t seem to want to waive… after that he’s free to sign with whoever he wants to.
Smart move for both parties to trade him to his preferred destination: he can get the eighth year in an extension, and they get some kind of asset in return so avoid losing him to free agency for nothing.
I support dumping Henrique. However, unless the plan is Nuge at 3C, this team has a serious void of depth centres.
I thought Frederic is supposed to play C
I am sure that’s the plan.
Count me skeptical. Freddy has not consistently played centre at the NHL level despite playing on teams with poor centre depth.
Word is they want to give him a long look. I also have high hopes for Tomasek.
I’m told Brock Boeser will be signed July 1. I expect LT has heard the same.
He’s slow and doesn’t produce 5v5 or play much defence. Boy do I hope you are incorrect…
Give me Ehlers instead please
Vancouver fans call him ‘Brocktober’. We need guys who can produce in June.
Just took a peek. Boeser has 23 points in 29 playoff games.
But there are NO players in Vancover who have played in June. How are we to know???
Curious where you heard this, or did you just mean reading the tea leaves from Stauffer comments, etc.?
I dunno. If they really are able to clear out that much cap space, maybe they should be looking at Marchand. Two-time Stanley Cup champ that looks like he can still elevate his game in crunch time. Probably less $$ and certainly less term. He probably still owes Bennett a flyby chicken wing to the face…
As I said below and OP didn’t believe me. They are absolutely going whale hunting.
Prediction it’s Boeser.
Boeser isn’t really much different than Perry at NHL Edge. Except he plays a lot more TOI so probably has more gas in the tank. He’s going to cost a lot more and doesn’t bring the grit
If it happens they must want a full time top 6 guy that is a better scorer. Those cheap bottom 6 guys are going to have to knock it out of the park
Speculation is not fact.
Just as the salmon flock to capistrano the oilers whaling boats are getting ready for the yearly whale hunt.
I thnk you mean swallows, not salmon…?
It’s a Dumb and Dumber reference
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lQJjWhSTgEI
Maccelli to the Leafs for peanuts. Stan falling asleep next to the phone just like Tambellini?
Oh come on. The guy was healthy scratched by Utah for almost a third of the season last year and comes with a $3.4 million cap hit. Toronto was the only one out of 31 teams to even offer peanuts for the cap dump.
Exactly. There are things to express concern over, but this is not the one to break out the fire and pitch forks over.
I don’t think our cap situation is made for expensive reclamation projects.
lol, still negative on everything Oilers related.
Kap is Knobber’s Will Acton or Toby Peterson.
He has some great moments in the playoffs but there is a reason he has bounced around. No consistency in his play (expect for being a consistent liability in his own zone).
Obviously the contract is not a huge issue. However, I was hoping the GM would save the coach from himself.
No, that’s Connor Brown, who management has hopefully sent down the road.
Neither Acton or Peterson have ever been in the same realm as Kapanen as an NHL player.
Kapanen at 1.3 has a very distinct possibility of outperforming the guy they just gave an 8 year deal next year. And at least he doesn’t routinely miss open nets.
The hyperbole on Frederic is getting silly.
The contract isn’t great. I wouldn’t have signed him for that long, personally.
But he is going to outperform Kapanen with pretty high certainty. Kap might not even be a regular in the line up.
You take your common sense and get the heck out of here. I’m starting to get edgy, I’ll give myself a time-out.
I vigorously disagree – a couple of good weeks in the playoffs where he wasn’t a defensive liability (until he became one) doesn’t alter his career history as a replacement level player at this point.
Kapanen worked hard to recreate himself with Edmonton. They like his speed and versatility. He’s become a Swiss army knife.