If you were the Oilers General Manager, would you rather trade Kailer Yamamoto or Warren Foegele?

Being the general manager for an NHL team is never easy. Especially in an intense hockey market like Edmonton. Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland has an important summer ahead of him.

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With Evan Bouchard, Ryan McLeod, and Klim Kostin all needing new deals, Holland has his work cut out for him. He wants to add to the Oilers top six, but doesn't have a big budget to do so. With only $5.07M of salary cap space left after re-signing Derek Ryan to a new two year contract. Bouchard is rumored to be signing a deal that is worth at least $3M, leaving only two million to sign both McLeod and Kostin plus any others. 

Someone needs to be moved just to fit everyone on the roster. The writing is on the wall, Kailer Yamamoto or Warren Foegele are the potential cap casualties. If you were the Oilers' GM, who would you trade?

The Case to Trade Yamamoto

Yamamoto was given every opportunity to succeed in the 2022-23 season. He was played 16:35 of average time on ice (TOI), and spend almost 132 minutes not on a line with either Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. He played on a line with Evander Kane and Draisaitl the most with 167 minutes. 

Despite this incredible deployment the young forward only managed to score 10 goals to go along with 15 assists in 58 games. It's tough to be in and out of the lineup with injuries, and that played a big part in his lackluster season. 

Yamamoto should be traded because of his lack of production with the top Oilers' players, despite playing most of his TOI with them. He is the more expensive player between the two with a $3.1M contract attached.

The Case to Trade Foegele

Foegele delivered a similar point total to Yamamoto with 28 points in 67 games. This is a bit more impressive than Yamamoto, given that his production came with only 12:42 TOI over the 2022-23 season. 

The majority of Foegele's production came while playing away from McDavid and Draisaitl. His most common linemates were a combination of McLeod, Ryan, Jesse Puljujarvi, Nick Bjugstad, and Mattias Janmark. Foegele only spent around 144 minutes playing with either McDavid or Draisaitl.

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Foegele has the cheaper contract at $2.75M. While Yamamoto is only 24, Foegele is arguably in his prime at 27 years old. What else can Foegele add to the Oilers' organization that they can't get from another depth forward or young prospect?

The Oilers' face a summer that could potentially lead to them losing one of (or both) Yamamoto and Foegele. With similar cap hits and production it's anyone's guess who will get traded before the beginning of the 2023-24 season.