Will Edmonton Oilers use ther NHL's new nuclear option on under-performing veterans?

This in from former Florida Panthers Asst. GM Steve Werier on the PDOcast with Thomas Drance, Werier’s description of a nuclear option some NHL teams will almost certainly use on under-producing veteran players in this year’s playoffs. I’ll suggest the nuclear option may even used in relation to high-price but low-productivity vets on the Oilers in coming playoffs years.

Under the NHL new rules, all teams must now be cap compliant every game in the playoffs,  just as they have been for years now every game in the regular season. This means a team like Florida can’t pick up high-price players near the deadline, with Seth Jones and Brad Marchand coming on board last season because Matthew Tkachuk was injured at the end of the season and the Panthers had his free salary slot. When Tkachuk got healthy for the playoffs, the Florida was able to use all three high-price stars because under the old rules it didn’t have to be cap compliant in the playoffs.

Now every playoff game, NHL teams must be under this years $95.5 million salary cap ceiling. As Werier describes it, this will lead to some tough and perhaps controversial decisions for teams.

If teams have managed to acquire high-end talent and costly talent at the trade deadline and found a way to be cap compliant during the regular season, will they be able to use that high-end trade acquisition in the playoffs if they’re willing it sit out less valuable but equally-expensive players.

In Edmonton, could GM Stan Bowman trade for a top goalie at the deadline, find a way to fit him under the cap for the regular season, but then have to sit other players in the playoffs to get under the cap for playoff games? The nuclear option would be sitting an under-performing but high-priced vet.

The Oilers have a few of those struggling players right now, such as Darnell Nurse, Trent Frederic and Andrew Mangiapane. Of course, down the road Nurse, Frederic and Mangiapane may all play better (Nurse and Mangiapane are already trending up), but in the 2026 playoffs, the pressure will be amped up greatly to perform at a high level or risk being taken out of the line-up.

Said Werier of this new stipulation: “We’ll see that maybe this year alone with some of these new rules around game-by-game playoff rosters, which might have some really negative externality, so to speak, where you might find teams saying, ‘You know what? We can really load up differently at the deadline, because we can plan to maybe scratch an expensive player during the playoffs and have some cap benefits to manage our roster that way.'”

Werier continued: “Those teams are going to be in situations where they might have to scratch veteran players whose cap hit exceeds their likely market value, you know, right now in 2026, in order to ice the most competitive roster and sort of make a veteran a Black Ace. And I don’t know if that’s something the PA (Players Association) really thought long and hard about in making these new playoff rules… But if the cost of that was for really respected veteran players, maybe some who haven’t won a Cup before, or even those who have, to sort of be stigmatized come playoff time and be scratched in order for a better roster to be put together, that’s going to be something that will probably resonate pretty widely.”

Added Drance: “Another example would be some of these teams that have older, maybe less productive at this point, veterans that have massive cap hits, but aren’t necessarily worthy of that at this point of their career. It’s just going to lead to a lot of fascinating conversations internally, I think, and difficult ones for teams in terms of the politics in the room, of what the perception of that is going to be, but also how that’s going to be received by the rest of the team, especially if it’s a popular player, in terms of essentially not allowing them to dress for a playoff game, especially an important one at that, and kind of what the trickle down of that would be.”

My take

1. I guarantee you teams are going to load up at the deadline if they have free cap space due to players being on Long Term Injured Reserve. And I guarantee this will lead some teams to sit high-price but under-producing veterans in order to be cap compliant for playoff games.

How can I be so sure? Well, have you seen how Vegas operates? Tampa? Florida?

The NHL is about winning or misery. Some NHL managers and coaches are going to push as hard as they can to win, expanding their roster at the trade deadline, knowing it will help them in the playoffs, perhaps making the difference between winning or losing the Stanley Cup.

2. If the Oilers have a significant injury of a high-price player that opens up cap space this season, that team  could well be Edmonton.

Yes, it will cause some upset on a team if a high-priced vet gets sent to the pressbox for playoff games, with his salary slot used by some other player.

But if a team calculates it will help their team win, such a move will be made, possibly even by Edmonton. It will be done in the name of winning, with the full knowledge that the NHL is a competitive league and a business, and that business is winning hockey games. Everyone will have to subvert their own ego to that goal, though I could see fireworks going off if a veteran player gets sat out for cap reasons and he and some percentage of the team strongly disagree with the move.

But we see in European soccer that the elite teams load up with all kinds of high-price star talent, even as there are only 11 roster spots. We see all the time top soccer players having to sit out big games because the coach thinks his best chances of winning are with other players.

The NHL will go down this same path in the playoffs this year.

3. The Oilers might well be in a good spot to replace some high-priced forwards in the line-up, with young players like Quinn Hutson, Roby Jarventie and Ike Howard ripping it up in the AHL this year. Their depth on defence isn’t so outstanding, but they do go seven players deep at the NHL level once Jake Walman is back, with Alec Regula and Ty Emberson both capable players.

4. We are in an NHL were veteran players are protected by no movement and no trade clauses. I have no issue with that. But this new nuclear option is going to make it tough on some players protected by those clauses. A team can’t move them out, but they can possibly acquire other talented players and choose to go with them in the playoffs, sitting out the under-performing player. I could see this convincing some players to waive a no trade or no movement clause if they’re unhappy enough about getting sat out.

The new nuclear option is going to make things spicy, if nothing else. But, again, it might also be the difference between a team winning or losing the Stanley Cup.

At the Cult of Hockey

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