On Tuesday night, the Edmonton Oilers avoided the salary arbitration deadline of August 4th and re-signed restricted free agent forward Ryan McLeod to a two-year contract paying him $2.1M per season. McLeod has played three NHL seasons, recording 20 goals and 25 assists for 45 points in 138 games. A solid two-way forward for Edmonton’s bottom six. Excellent on the penalty kill and, although in a losing effort, played strong 5v5 minutes against Jack Eichel‘s line in the Golden Knights series. This season, he took a big step offensively despite more games with injury than in the previous season.
In 2021/2022, he put up 21 points in 71 games. In 2022/2023, he put up 23 points in 57 games. The latter would’ve been good for 33 points had he played in all 82 games. While Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has now been a second line winger and had his offensive numbers skyrocket, McLeod found himself auditioning for the third line center role and landed the part. According to CapFriendly, the Oilers now have $3,509,208 in projected cap space and still need to get Evan Bouchard a new contract. Bouchard’s extension will put Edmonton slightly over the cap. So as it has been more often in the Jay Woodcroft era, they will ice a 21 man roster rather than a 22 man roster.
