hello Oilers fans Austin here and welcome back to another video now that the Oilers have locked up Leon dry Sidle to his big 8-year $112 million contract we're going to take a look at the next player that they have to lock up and hopefully they do it before training camp opens and that is Evan buard will they get the deal done before training camp opens I'm not sure like I mentioned in the Leon dreidle videos before a lot of players don't like to negotiate during the season they like to just focus on playing hockey and winning a Stanley Cup and if you're the Edon Oilers you got to get him locked up right now because if he continues to get even better offensively than he did last year where he had 82 points and he's he's going to he's going to be a player that scores 25 maybe even 30 goals he's going to put up a 100 points and you're going to have to pay him 13 14 million a year and obviously the Oilers cannot afford to do that right now we're going to take a look and project what buard should be making and hopefully they can get this deal done if you end up enjoying today's video make sure you hit like if you end up really enjoying it and you're not yet subscribed to the Chanel Channel Make sure you do subscribe this is a very Oilers focused YouTube channel where we provide tons of different things uh for everyone whether it's analytics commentary live streams that sort of thing so if you end up enjoying today's content and you're a new viewer welcome in I hope you enjoy your stay and let's jump into this so now with uh Evan Bard before we talk about what I'm going to project for him to make we're going to take a look at puckpedia we're going to take a look at the salary cap implications of the Leon Dr settle contract and then take a look at what the next year or two has in store for the Oilers you know when it comes to their salary cap situation and then we're going to discuss Evan Bard his stats what I think he's going to get what I think he should get now when we look at the full roster breakdown for this season obviously the Oilers they have everyone locked in they have their forwards they have their defensemen and they have their two goenda dollars in salary cap that is going to acrew all season for the team and they may even have more salary cap to work with if uh Vander Kane ends up going on ltir to start the season but of course until we get to that we're not going to worry about Evander Kane or the ltir pool we're just going to worry about what is the current situation now obviously dry Sidle that deal does not kick in until next year $14 million a year kicks in next year uh he is a UFA in 2033 now they have some good contracts here Zack Heyman only 5 a half million a year uh newon Hopkins 5.125 million a year now Adam Henrik he is signed to next year same with Arison and Yanmar too they gave Yanmar the three year contract this summer I thought it would be a one or twoyear deal not sure why they needed to add a third year but hey I like that players want to stay and play an M10 I'm not going to complain about that the Oilers Market has been notorious for you know players not wanting to sign here but that has changed over the last couple years Leon dry Sidle in his media availability yesterday with Stan Bowman was talking about how players don't want to leave Edmonton anymore and you love to hear that as a fan now next year you have dry cidal but there's a lot of forwards that are not going to be back Cory Perry likely won't won't be back Jeff Skinner if he has a good year puts up 30 35 goals and then plays really well in the playoffs well he's going to go get a big contract somewhere else and uh the Oilers won't have the money you know you look at this year $52 million in salary cap going to their forwards next year 51.7 million almost the same salary cap hit but they're losing four of their forwards next year which is pretty wild to think about and that's the effect of the dry Sidle uh uh contract his raise that he's getting um $5.5 million $65 million a year raise so obviously he deserves it but there is going to be a salary cap situation next year where the Oilers going to have to rely on some really big value contracts to to take advantage of that now when we look at the defensive situation Evan Bard $3.9 million is what he's making this year and then he's an RFA of course when you're an RFA the team controls your rights uh but I would like to see a contract get done as soon as humanly possible for Evan Bard the salary cap situation this year paying about $24.6 million to their demon and next year it's $1 19 million so if you project that $5 million that they would be able to spend on buard for a raise well that would bring him up to about 8.9 million per year but I think he's going to get a little bit more than that and this is why I'm not super super concerned about what buard will end up getting but we are going to discuss that and then of course the goenda you have picker uh steuart Skinner after this year once July 1 hits they're going to be a able to resign him long term same with Conor McDavid as well and if steuart Skinner puts up a really good year if he's top 10 in most statistical categories puts up 35 40 wins you know steuart Skinner is probably going to be asking for about5 to6 million a year maybe even more depending what his stats look like so for the mton Oilers the time to win is literally right now it has to be this season uh because when you get into next season and Beyond things are a little bit shaky but again that's something we won't worry about till we get there we can focus on what they can do right now and that is with Evan Bard how much should Bard be making his last three regular seasons combined 244 games played 38 goals which among all defensemen is tied for eighth 127 assists which among all defensemen tied for or is 13th 165 points which ranks 11th and then a plus 50 rating now I didn't provide a whole lot of advanced stats here or any advanced stats and I did provide plus minus rating for a channel and like myself I take a lot of stock in the advanced metrics I don't put a lot of stock in a plus minus rating however there are a lot of people that tune into the channel That put a lot of stock into the stats that I've put up and I will make a video detailing the advanced stats a little bit later uh but for right now we're just going to focus on the bare minimum just raw data goals assist Points Plus rating um if that's cool with you great I know for some people who are more analytically inclined you're going to want to see the advanced stats that's something that I'll provide a little bit later on in 2023 24 Bard's average time on Ice 23 minutes per game which is a lot that is like he's a number one D Man him and EOL really you know they're given most of the responsibilities when it comes to trying to shut things down and produce offense last three playoff Seasons 53 games played 13 goals which is second 45 assists which is first 58 points which ranks first just like Leon Dr Sidle Evan Bard seems to play his best hockey when it matters most and that is in the play play offs and he has a plus six rating as well however he was plus 14 this past postseason which was terrific and he also finished second in scoring in the entire postseason behind only Conor McDavid as a defenseman and in the playoffs this year 25 minutes and 1 second time on Ice per game he is an absolute stud and uh when we look at some of the pros of Evan Bard's game Elite offensive production he is their power play quarterback and he has Elite on ice Q he knows where to be he knows where players are he's a terrific first passer out of the zone and they when him and atom are on the ice they don't spend a whole lot of time in the defensive Zone and these are some of the biggest Pros for Evan Bard's game why he would deserve a massive contract now with pros come some cons when we look at the cons of Evan Bard's game he is sheltered by Matias echol eom allows buard to really play the game that he wants to play and maximize that you know that production maximize the ability to uh produce with guys like McDavid with dry cidal with Hyman and that's not a super bad thing but I am acknowledging that uh Matias eoles game his defensive game allows for buard to kind of play a little bit I wouldn't say Loosey Goosey but there is a little bit of leeway a little bit of leniency there when it comes to him on the ice with echol now another con for Evan Bard is the grade A risks he is prone to those risks where he'll take a you know a pinch in a certain situation where he probably shouldn't pinch he'll make a play where he doesn't have coverage behind him and obviously that can lead to some uh two-on ones that can lead to turnovers and obviously when you're playing 25 minutes A Night in the postseason you're going to make some mistakes and they're going to be Amplified because you're on the ice so much and people are going to look at that and go you know what he's bad defensively we can't pay him a lot because of this it happens and for a player of Bard's caliber that you're just going to see that same with Leon dry subtle we've seen how many times Leon dyle you know it looks like he's just being lazy in the neutral zone or the defensive Zone but he's also on the ice a lot so it is a bit more magnified because you do see that a little bit more often but that's just cuz he's on the ice more than anyone else and then another con for Evan Bard is sometimes he's just a little bit slow to react to a play as I mentioned his on Ice IQ is phenomenal he seems to know where to be and where guys are but despite knowing sometimes he's a little bit bit slow to react and uh that can be very frustrating for a lot of fans um a lot of oers fans in particular there there's this narrative that Evan Bard is slow and he doesn't react well to plays and there's some truth to that I think there's like I think it's like a Hal truth he is slow to react sometimes and then it looks really bad when you know as a fan you're we already know where he should be and we're yelling we're like oh Bard what are you doing and then all of a sudden the Puck's going in the back of the net doesn't get the save that sort of thing so those are some of the pros those are some of the cons of Evan bushard overall Evan bushard is an elite player he's an elite company and he is on the rise he is going to continue to get better he is going to continue to put up elite elite offensive production and defenseman of Evan Bard's caliber right shot offensive dman with a ton of upside and you know he's really coming into his own he's putting up a ton of points and he's going to get paid and in my opinion I think Evan B Shard he's going to come in around $10 million a year aav if they can get him locked up before preseason starts here before training camp opens I don't want this to you know go into the regular season and then have buard maybe score 30 goals and have a 100 points because of that happens he's going to be asking for 12 or 13 or even more than that per year and obviously the Oilers probably won't be able to afford that considering the situation with Conor McDavid reupping him and then seart Skinner as well so if you're the mton Oilers let's get this is done if they can get him around the $10 million average annual value Mark if they can even come in a shade under that if you can get them for like 9.5 million that would be terrific also you have the Deferred contract structure that you know the Carolina Hurricanes have done with Seth Jarvis one of their best defensemen fton can also do that with Evan buchard try and maximize the current salary cap situation and pay buard out in a quote unquote year n salary uh that would also be great as well however whatever buard ends up making he's probably worth it I did just want to discuss what his pros and cons are what kind of production he's put up and then the type of money that he's going to command and if they can get him to around $10 million a year as a fan I'm very happy about that he is currently in the last year of his Bridge deal he's only 24 the team will retain his rights I'm not worried about him you know being lost to a trade uh obviously we we we've beaten this horse way too much when it comes to the Darnell nurse contract that affects things as well so we're going to see how this all plays out what do you think Evan Bard is worth what do you think he should be paid let me know in the comment section below and like I said if you enjoyed today's video make sure you hit like if you really liked it make sure you subscribe and always tell someone that you love them tomorrow is never a guarantee tell someone that you love them all right we'll see you soon in oil country take care