Oilers reportedly 'leaning toward moving' former first-round pick

After a disappointingly early playoff exit, the Edmonton Oilers are headed into another pivotal offseason. 

Desperate to build a Stanley Cup contender around the team’s two all-world talents, the Oilers don’t have a ton of cap space to add reinforcements to their roster, so they’ll need to get creative in finding ways to support their existing stars. 

One avenue the team could go down is moving a player taking up a decent amount of cap space, namely 2017 first-round pick Kailer Yamamoto. The 24-year-old is set to make $3.1M against the cap next season yet provided the Oilers with just 25 points in 58 games this season.

The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman reports that the Oilers are “leaning toward moving” Yamamoto and are hoping they can find a team willing to acquire the player “without the Oilers having to retain salary or offer a sweetener.” 

Yamamoto did manage 20 goals and 41 points last season, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a team would have interest in him as a bounce-back candidate. 

In the case that trade interest does not materialize, though, Nugent-Bowman does note that the Oilers “appear open to buying out Yamamoto,” a move that would save them $2.6M this season at the cost of $533K in dead cap next summer.