Edmonton Oilers score big with Skinner and Arvidsson

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Even after they went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, you knew significant change was coming for the Edmonton Oilers.

With nine unrestricted free agents and a pressing need to upgrade their top six, everyone was expecting a facelift when the market opened on Canada Day.

And they got one.

After some dramatic nipping and tucking on the first day of free agency, the Oilers are taking a brand new look into next season. The Oilers added two offensive talents to round out the top six in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, resigned three of their own free agents, landed a depth defenceman and waved goodbye to Warren Foegele, Vincent Desharnais and Sam Carrick.

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In a crazy opening to the free agent market, with teams spending $745 million in the first hour, the Oilers wasted no time addressing one of their biggest concerns from last year, second line skill. They signed Arvidsson to a two-year contract worth $4 million a season, then followed that up by signing Skinner to a one-year, $3 million deal.

Edmonton has long been searching for affordable wingers to complement Leon Draisaitl on the second line and they addressed the issue in a big way.

Arvidsson, 31, is a competitive player who can finish (he had 49 and 59 points in his previous two seasons with the Los Angeles Kings before back surgery cost him most of last year).

If his totals balloon in Edmonton the same way they did for Zach Hyman, the five-foot-10, 185-pounder could be a sneaky good fit. For a team that would like to make Draisaitl happy as he enters the final year of his contract, giving him somebody to play with other than hard-working third-liners is important.

The former Nashville Predator also played several years with Mattias Ekholm, so the Oilers had some help on the recruiting front as well as some inside information on what he’s like as a player and a teammate.

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And they saw him face-to-face the last two years in the playoffs — he put up 10 points in 11 games — so they know he plays the game hard and doesn’t mind post season intensity one bit.

Skinner, meanwhile, is a shoot-first player who’s surpassed the 30-goal mark numerous times in his career. He’s a straight-up finisher who scored 33, 35 and 24 goals over the last three seasons in Buffalo. The Sabres just bought out his previous contract, that was paying him $9 million a season, so he can come to Edmonton on the cheap to increase his stock in an offence-rich environment.

Edmonton also bulked up the blue line depth, signing six-foot-five, 220-pound Josh Brown (formerly of the Arizona Coyotes) to a three-year deal at $1 million a year. Brown also played in Florida, Ottawa and Boston and had 10 points and 75 penalty minutes in 51 games last year.

The Brown deal was also a preemptive strike because the revolving door works both ways.

Desharnais signed with the rival Vancouver Canucks for $2 million a year after pricing himself out of Edmonton’s budget. They could have used him next season and beyond, he emerged as a strong presence on the blue line and served them very well on a penalty kill that proved to be one of their most valuable weapons in the playoffs, but the raise he earned on last year’s $762,000 was never going to fit in Edmonton.

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And after the Oilers raided one of L.A.’s free agents, the Kings returned the favour about a half-hour later, signing Foegele to a three-year deal worth $3.5 million a year.

Foegele is coming off a 20-goal season and strong playoff performance but the Oilers are too tight to the cap to make an extension work for him.

Carrick, who came to Edmonton in the Adam Henrique trade and provided some much-needed fourth-line grit, signed with the New York Rangers at $1 million a year for three years.

Faced with losing as many as seven free agent forwards, the Oilers did retain the services of winger Connor Brown, signing him to a one-year extension worth $1 million on the strength of his strong performance in the playoffs. They also re-signed Corey Perry to a one-year, $1.4 million deal.

Then, just when you thought they might be done, the Oilers signed Mattias Janmark to a three-year deal worth $1.45 million a year. Janmark was one of Edmonton’s best players the deeper the Oilers got in the playoffs. He had two goals and two assists in the last four games of the Stanley Cup Final and scored Edmonton’s only goal in Game 7. He’s a key ingredient on the penalty kill and is exactly what you’re looking for in a depth player — feisty, plays a responsible game and kicks in the odd big goal.

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E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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