Oilers Close To New Deals With 2 Players

The Edmonton Oilers still have to sign two restricted free agents, and though it might not have looked good early with the threat of an offer sheet and potentially not enough cap space, they appear to be gaining lots of traction.

Bob Stauffer spoke about the situation on Oilers Now, saying that, "I think they're close on (Evan) Bouchard. Within $100k is my guess." Typically teams and players are much further apart when going through tough negotiations, so $100k can be worked out depending on what happens with Ryan McLeod.

Speaking of McLeod, Stauffer also mentioned that, "I would not be surprised if the McLeod situation is resolved by Friday." This would mean that the two sides come to an agreement, possibly for more than one season, before arbitration, then the Oilers will have a good gauge as to how much money they can then allocate to Bouchard.

McLeod took a decent pay cut last year on his contract, so he deserves to get what he's worth for a year or two and prove he's a permanent fixture in the third line center role with the potential to even move up in the future. As it's looking, the Oilers have a few players they can compare Bouchard to and keep the price down on a bridge deal. It looks like McLeod will get around $2.25 million AAV and Bouchard just under $4 million AAV.

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