June 30, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

Friday represented the deadline for NHL teams to submit qualifying offers for their restricted free agents. Tendering a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent allows that team to keep the player’s NHL rights, regardless of whether or not they accept the qualifying offer. 

The Edmonton Oilers made qualifying offers to all five of their restricted free agents including Evan Bouchard, Ryan McLeod, Raphael Lavoie, Noah Philp, and Olivier Rodrigue. Bouchard and McLeod will not accept their qualifying offers as they stand to earn more than what their qualifying offers would pay them. Philp has decided to retire for personal reasons, but issuing the qualifying offer allows the Oilers to keep his rights should he have a change of heart. I expect that Lavoie and Rodrigue will accept their qualifying offers.

Every year, there are a lot of restricted free agents that don’t receive qualifying offers. That means that those players become unrestricted free agents. The list of players that didn’t receive qualifying offers is a good place to look if you’re a cap strapped team looking for a hidden gem. That sounds like the Oilers! They need to find two scoring right wingers and a couple of forwards that can compete for roster spots at the league minimum. 

Ken Holland likes to make it difficult for his young prospects to earn roster spots. The two kids with question marks surrounding them coming into camp in September will be Dylan Holloway and Raphael Lavoie. Holloway is expected to make the team, but Bakersfield needs players and he’s the only waivers exempt forward the Oilers have. Lavoie has to go through waivers to be sent to Bakersfield this year. He plays right wing, which is a position of need for the Oilers. I don’t expect Lavoie to be given a spot, so I expect that Holland will sign multiple right wingers.

I see a group of three right wingers that would be an upgrade over Derek Ryan in a third line role:

Daniel Sprong, SEA (46 points in 66 games): Sprong had a slow start to his promising career. He’s always been a skilled player, but a reputation can follow a player around. He didn’t last with the Pittsburgh Penguins because he hadn’t earned the trust of head coach Mike Sullivan. Sprong played two seasons for the Washington Capitals, but couldn’t get into more than 47 games in either year. He exploded this past season though! He got 46 points in 66 games for the Seattle Kraken. Only 14 of those points were on the powerplay. 32 of those points were at even strength. That’s just under a half of a point per game at even strength. Sprong has also kept his goal share percentage at or above 58.49% in three of the last four years, including a whopping 65.57% last season. His career shooting percentage is 11.9%, which is pretty solid. He might be asking for more money than what the Oilers could afford, but Sprong is worth a phone call.

Morgan Geekie, SEA (28 points in 69 games): Speaking of right-handed players from the Seattle Kraken that didn’t get qualifying offers, Geekie is available. Geekie’s greatest asset is his shot. His shooting percentage has been over 10% in two of his three full NHL seasons. He also had a goals for percentage of 58.57% last season. He can skate, he can finish at an above league average rate, and he can win the goal share battle. Geekie is definitely worth a shot!

Denis Gurianov, DAL/MTL (17 points in 66 games): Gurianov showed a ton of speed and a wicked shot while playing for the Dallas Stars in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. His performance dipped in the subsequent seasons. Gurianov had a career-high shooting percentage of 15% in 2019-20. His shooting percentage got up over 10% with the Montreal Canadiens after he was acquired at the trade deadline. That was the first time his shooting percentage has been over 10% since 2019-20. It’s a sign that his finishing form might be re-emerging. He could be worth a gamble.

The following players are all right handed shots that could push for roster spots:

Michael McLeod

Christian Fischer

Zack McEwen

Nathan Bastian

Julien Gauthier

Dylan Gambrell

Colin White

Yes, that is Ryan McLeod’s brother, Michael that is available. He’s a slightly older and right-handed version of Ryan. That can’t be a bad thing to add to the roster! Fischer was once a promising second round pick, but injuries have plagued him and his performance has deteriorated on a bad team in Arizona. Perhaps a change of scenery would help him. McEwen was considered by the Oilers at the trade deadline because they wanted to add some toughness. Klim Kostin’s departure has created something of a need in the toughness department, so McEwen is a real possibility.

Related: Oilers Trade Yamamoto and Kostin, Re-Sign Janmark in Advance of Free Agency

The following players are left handed shots that would be worth considering for the right price:

Sam Steel

Noah Gregor

Max Comtois

Tyson Jost

Anders Bjork

Rasmus Asplund

Jesper Boqvist

Evgeny Svechnikov

Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Logan Brown

This list contains a former Canadian World Junior captain (Comtois captained the 2018 World Junior squad, which presents its own set of potential issues), the highlight of a package used to trade for Taylor Hall (Bjork), and a couple of local products (Steel and Gregor). Svechnikov is a former draft pick of Oilers general manager Ken Holland’s. I don’t think any of these players would step in and battle for top six spots, but they could all compete for bottom of the roster spots.

One player that I haven’t mentioned yet is former second overall pick Nolan Patrick. Patrick has missed multiple seasons with head injuries, including last season. I don’t think many teams will be lining up for his services because of his health issues, but it’s certainly noteworthy that a former second overall pick was not given a qualifying offer.

Holland will likely set his focus on more veteran players that he feels can contribute to a Stanley Cup winner right now, but the market of players that didn’t get qualifying offers from their teams certainly merits exploration.