Should The Oilers Acquire Halak?

Written by Shane Sanders at The Hockey Writers.com

When the New York Islanders waived veteran goaltender Jaroslav Halak, media outlets made an automatic link to the Edmonton Oilers. It’s rumored Oilers head coach Todd McLellan has lost confidence in backup Jonas Gustavsson and thus relied heavily on starter Cam Talbot. However, making an acquisition for Halak isnot the right move.

The 31-year-old Slovakian goaltender became the odd man out in the Islanders three-headed crease conundrum with Thomas Greiss emerging and a desire to keep the younger J-F Berube. The Islanders are currently 15-15-6 and eight points out of a playoff position.

Halak wasn’t the whole reason for this, but his underwhelming statistics proved he’s part of the problem. However, there’s a lack of logic in a Halak acquisition for the Oilers.

Fiscally Irresponsible

The 29-year-old defender has one more year remaining at $3.62 million and is currently assigned to the AHL Bakersfield Condors. A likely buyout candidate this summer, the Oilers would be on the hook for two years at $1.16 million each if Edmonton went that route.It would be fiscally irresponsible to make a commitment to Halak, even if Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli got creative and convinced Snow and the Islanders to take defenseman Mark Fayne.

By acquiring Halak and his $4.5 million cap hit in a straight across deal for Fayne, the Oilers would be adding another $880,000. They’d have Halak on the books for another year, which means allocating $4.5 million towards a backup and a total of $8.66 million in the crease.

The Oilers need to move away from making irresponsible financial decisions. There’s a looming cap crunch coming to Edmonton with Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Brandon Davidson, Darnell Nurse and even Matt Benning needing new deals in the next two years.

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