Three Oilers players in line for new deals as team shapes future roster
The Edmonton Oilers are digging into their own house first, with Stan Bowman expected to explore new deals for Connor Ingram, Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy.
The report dropped from The Fourth Period, naming all three pending free agents as priorities for the front office.
It's a telling signal. Bowman isn't waiting for July 1 to test the open market. He wants depth pieces locked in before the noise starts.
Start with the goalie. Ingram carries a $1.95 million cap hit and finished the regular season with a .898 save percentage across 32 appearances, with two shutouts on his ledger.
That's the kind of backup math Bowman likes. Cheap, available, and capable of stealing a Tuesday night when Stuart Skinner needs a breather.
Dickinson is the trickier file. The 30-year-old forward put up 17 points in 64 games on a $4.25 million ticket and finished the regular season at minus-10.
Stan Bowman's bottom-six gamble lands on Dickinson
Then there's Murphy. The 33-year-old defenseman appeared in 80 games this season and is sitting on a $4.4 million cap charge with a -2 rating.
He's chipped in across six playoff games already, with two goals, an assist and a plus-3 rating. That's the version Edmonton wants to keep around.
The deeper question is structure. Edmonton's cap sheet is already top-heavy thanks to Leon Draisaitl's $14 million hit, the highest in the league.
Bowman has to thread the needle. Three new deals for veterans north of 29 isn't a free swing when Connor McDavid's future is the looming storyline.
And the timing matters. The Oilers are alive in the postseason, riding a regular-season finish of 93 points and a plus-13 goal differential into the spring.
Would you sign a 33-year-old defenseman to a multi-year extension when your top-end money is about to balloon? Kris Knoblauch might love the room he gives the locker room. The cap sheet might disagree.
Dickinson has answered in the playoffs with two goals and three points in four games. That number muddies the conversation Bowman has been preparing for all year.
The question isn't whether these three played a role in Edmonton's spring. It's whether keeping them on new paper is the smartest use of the cap space McDavid will eventually demand.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 10, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Alex Newhook | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alexander Killorn | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ian Moore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||