September 12, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers announced that they signed Adam Erne to a PTO on Tuesday. The 2013 second round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning has played in 355 NHL games, amassing 40 goals and 49 assists for 89 points in those games for the Lightning and the Detroit Red Wings. Erne joins Sam Gagner and Brandon Sutter as PTO invitees for the Oilers this fall.

Related: Oilers Sign Gagner to PTO

Erne had eight goals and ten assists for eighteen points in 61 games for the Red Wings last year. He was sent down to Grand Rapids of the AHL after playing 43 games with the Red Wings. The move was part of some cap gymnastics to activate Filip Zadina from the LTIR last February. Erne played nine games in Grand Rapids, where he got five assists. Erne would return to the Red Wings lineup in early March, and he completed the season on their roster.

He has never been much more than a fourth liner, but Erne did enjoy a nice breakout season with the Red Wings in 2020-21. He scored 20 points in 45 games. He tied for their team lead in goals with eleven, and finished fifth on the team with nine assists. He also led the team in powerplay goals and tied for second in powerplay points. Expect this to be an outlier season for Erne. If Erne is leading your team in any major offensive category, then there’s a problem; but this shows that Erne could be used on a second unit powerplay in a pinch.

Last season was the first season of his career where Erne spent any considerable amount of time penalty killing. He averaged 1:37 per game on the penalty kill last season, which ranked him fifth among Red Wings forwards last season. My interpretation of his penalty killing stats relative to his teammates on Natural Stat Trick is that he was a so-so penalty killer, but one number that did stand out to me was his relative goals for percentage of 4.87%, which means the team’s goals for percentage was 4.87% higher when he was on the ice than when he wasn’t on the ice. There will be superior penalty killing options available, but Erne could step in there in a pinch as well.

Erne is a left-handed left winger that has predominantly received fourth line usage. He has averaged between thirteen and fourteen minutes per night since 2020-21. He’s mostly been used at even strength, and his underlying numbers don’t look great; but I wouldn’t expect them to while playing on a bad team like the Red Wings have been for some time. 

Related: Oilers to Sign Brandon Sutter to PTO

Erne had a cap hit of $2.1 million last season, which is probably one of the reasons he was waived to make room for Zadina last season. Teams were clearly unwilling to commit to that cap hit for the level of production they could expect from Erne. I imagine that Erne’s ask from teams this summer was too high, which is why he ended up signing a PTO in September. Erne is a draft pick of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s, and Yzerman was the one that signed him to his last contract. Yzerman’s relationship with Oilers GM Ken Holland is well documented. I’m sure the two spoke about Erne as part of the discussions to bring him to Oilers camp.

Given the depth that the Oilers have at left wing, Erne will have a tough time making this team. Evander Kane, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Warren Foegele, Dylan Holloway, and Mattias Janmark are all ahead of Erne on the depth chart. Drake Caggiula factors into that battle somewhere too. If signed, I could see Erne being a useful addition to the Bakersfield Condors, and he would be a serviceable recall option for the Oilers.