Oilers cap space collapses to $228k as five injuries pile up before season opener

The Edmonton Oilers went from salary cap surplus to severe constraint in weeks. Five injured players—Matt Savoie ($887,000), Mattias Janmark ($1.45 million), Alec Regula ($850,000), Jason Dickinson ($4.0 million), and Frederic Andersen ($1.0 million)—are all counting against the team's cap while sidelined, a peculiarity of how the NHL caps injured players on one-way contracts.

Those injuries forced the Oilers to send waiver-exempt defenceman Damien Carfagna to Bakersfield and place veteran goalie Matt Tomkins on waivers to create roster flexibility. The team now has minimal cap space, down from a projected almost $5 million in late August.

All five players are expected back within the next few months, with Jason Dickinson expected to return first. But the timing could not be worse for a team expecting to contend this season. "At one point, the Oilers were projected to have almost $5 million in cap space. Now they're down to about $1 million, and one or two more injuries could force them to start the season with a short roster," according to Puckpedia writers. That analysis came before Dickinson's injury, which tightened the squeeze further.

The cap crunch comes after the Oilers moved Darnell Nurse to San Jose in July, positioning themselves as winners of that summer's free agency. Regula's situation is particularly tight—though on a two-way contract, his full cap hit counts against Edmonton because he played in more than 50 games last season. Owen Michaels is also on the books to start the year with a $900 cap hit.

The Oilers will need to manage rosters carefully until the injured list shrinks.