This in from the Edmonton Oilers, news that they are loaning veteran forward Drake Caggiula to the AHL Bakersfield Condors.
My take
1. It’s not known what this demotion exactly means, as sometimes teams do curious thing in order to stay cap compliant or be under the cap in order to accrue cap space to bring in new players. But if this is Caggiula being sent down to the AHL to play in Bakersfield, I have to wonder if the Oilers are sending down the right forward.
2. The Oilers have been lacking two things this year at forward, speed and aggression. As soon as Noah Philp and Drake Caggiula were called up and got into games, both those needs suddenly seemed a less pressing. Both upped the tempo of the team somewhat and both brought more fight to the battle than we’d been seeing.
3. If Edmonton did not send out Caggiula but needed to send another player, who would go? Fourth line players Derek Ryan and Corey Perry are the obvious candidates. Both make more money against the cap than Caggiula and I don’t see either performing better than Caggiula right now. If this decision were made on the basis of pure performance right at this moment, I’ll suggest Caggiula has outperformed both veterans. Of course, if it was all about pure individual performance, Caggiula and Philp would have made the team out of training cap.
4. Other considerations? Team chemistry is huge. Sending out a veteran player like Perry or Ryan would represent a significant change that might well not sit well with other players, not to mention the demoted veteran. There’s also a chance that Ryan or Perry could be scooped up on waivers. It’s also the case that Ryan has been a valuable penalty killer in the past, though his performance has been off so far this year, same as everyone else on the PK.
5. I doubt Perry would have been picked up on waivers, given his cap hit of $1.15 million this year. That said, this is Corey “Freakin’” Perry we’re talking about here, a huge presence and a future Hall of Fame player. You don’t do anything lightly when it comes to Perry. His play this year has been OK-ish. He lags in back-to-back games, and I don’t know why he played over Caggiula against New Jersey. He makes one or two solid plays a game and isn’t a defensive liability. But for a team lacking speed and aggression, I don’t see Perry providing that, save for the odd, well-timed fight. All due respect to the player, Caggiula adds more just now.
How do you see it?
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