The Edmonton Oilers continued their busy offseason Sunday night, shipping blue liner Cody Ceci, along with a 2025 3rd round pick to San Jose in exchange for defenceman Ty Emberson.
The deal comes on the heels of the club acquiring Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks, and frees up some much needed cap space as the club continues to navigate the St. Louis Blues’ offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.
The 30 year old defender spent the last 3 seasons in Edmonton, most recently registering 25 points (5G, 20A) across 79 games with the club in 2023-24. During last year’s playoff run to the Stanley Cup finals, Ceci scored 2 goals to go along with 3 helpers across 24 playoff appearances.
Edmonton is currently flush against the cap, meaning that even with the $3.25M in space the club created by moving the former Ottawa Senator to the west coast, they still have work to do in order to retain both Broberg and Holloway.
Evander Kane could be placed on LTIR which would free up another $5M+ in space, and would be similar to what Tampa Bay and Vegas have done with players in recent years to alleviate some of their financial constraints. But with the Blues offering $4.5M for Broberg, and another $2.2M for Holloway, the Oilers still aren’t in the clear as of yet.
Ceci had been rumoured to be on the trading block since news of the RFA offer sheets first broke. However, he could soon be joined by another key contributor to the team’s postseason run last year in Brett Kulak, whose $2.75M cap hit may also need to be moved out of town if the club plans to keep both their young prospects.
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