Oilers Were Being Targeted for an Offer Sheet on Evan Bouchard

The Edmonton Oilers signed Evan Bouchard to a four-year contract extension on the eve of NHL free agency. The deal, while high at $10.5 million per season, is also being analyzed as a fair deal given where Bouchard’s game and the salary cap is going to go. But, it wasn’t just wanting Bouchard to extend that got the Oilers to hurry up their negotiations.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and other insiders, Bouchard was being targeted for an offer sheet.

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Friedman writes:

“A few sources believe Bouchard was a legitimate offer-sheet candidate, possibly by Carolina. When the two teams discussed Mikko Rantanen before the trade deadline, the Hurricanes indicated interest in the high-scoring defender. Edmonton never forgot that.”

Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer also revealed that the Oilers were under the impression an offer sheet was coming. They’d been targeted in the past and lost two good players. They didn’t want to lose another, so it was imperative they get that deal done. It explains why they were willing to accept a deal worth over $10 million for just four years. Speculation is that an eight-year extension would have cost the Oilers up to $100 million.

Would the Hurricanes have gone for Bouchard? Perhaps, but we may never know. There is talk that teams are circling Bowen Byram on a possible offer sheet situation in Buffalo. The idea that offer sheet targets are out there is real. Bouchard would have been among the best options for teams.

As for what they might have offered, it could have been as high as $11 or $12 million per season. If the Oilers had matched, it realistically could have cost the Oilers more than this four-year deal did. Bouchard might not have signed the offer sheet either. He said after inking his deal with the Oilers, “Our core is going to keep growing together and keep getting stronger together.”

Next: Connor Brown Leaves Oilers, Signs 4-Year Deal with Devils