Jeff Jackson reveals the moment he knew he could trade Ryan McLeod.
Jeff Jackson reveals the moment he knew he could trade Ryan McLeod.
EDMONTON, AB -- You can never have too many good players.
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That is, unless you run your team over the salary cap. Then you have to make deals in order to get your team cap compliant.
That's the position the Edmonton Oilers found themselves in early in the offseason. According to PuckPedia, they are still over the cap ceiling by $354,167.
They were over by a larger margin before they traded Ryan McLeod to the Buffalo Sabres. Jeff Jackson was recently on a podcast and revealed more insight behind why McLeod was traded.
On The Bob McCown Podcast, Jackson spoke about looking to the future and the impact that bringing back a UFA had on the team's decision, "you're looking out a little bit into the horizon, 'what's he going to make?' Not next year, but the year after and the year after that. And we have to start replenishing our prospect pool."
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"We were able to get Adam Henrique back on a two-year deal as our third-line center (then) it made sense for us to move Ryan."
From this clip it's clear to see how Jackson views both Adam Henrique and McLeod. In his mind they both fill a third-line center role.
McLeod being only 24-years-old also factors into this deal. He is in the final year of a contract paying him $2.1-million per year. Once that deal is up he'll most likely be looking for a raise in the $3-5-million range.
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The Oilers prospect pool is not one of the top ones in the NHL. Beau Akey was arguably the top prospect before they acquired Matt Savoie. Savoie immediately becomes the best prospect the team has.
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