Matt Savoie is staying patient with the Edmonton Oilers, but his camp just confirmed there is nothing on paper yet.
Agent Gerry Johansson told OilersNow yesterday that no extension talks have started between his client and the organization.
Savoie is 22 years old, carrying a cap hit of just $886,667 on his rookie deal, a bargain the Oilers are clearly not in a rush to fix.
"We haven't, only because I think Edmonton's in a unique position where they're in a win-now mode," Johansson said.
That's the blunt part. Edmonton's front office, run by GM Stan Bowman, has bigger fires to put out before locking up a 37-point forward long term.
Savoie put up 18 goals and 19 assists this season, adding five game-winning goals and five power play goals along the way.
His production cooled recently. Over his last five games he has just one point and sits at a minus-2 rating in that stretch.
Why Edmonton keeps kicking the Savoie contract down the road
Zoom out and the calendar makes sense. The Oilers sit 14th overall with a 41-30-11 record and 93 points, tied to a modest plus-13 goal differential.
They're W1 on their last game, a 6-1 blowout of Vancouver, and 6-2-2 over their last ten. Nobody in that room is thinking about spreadsheets this week.
Johansson isn't panicking, either. "Matt really likes it here, and we'd love him to stay here. I know he would," he said.
He kept going. "In talking to Stan that will come. But as we know, Edmonton is pretty focused on this year."
That's the tension nobody's solving right now. A team chasing a deep playoff run and a 22-year-old finishing his entry-level deal don't exactly move at the same speed.
Over his last ten games, Savoie has three goals and two assists, five points, still useful depth on a roster built around stars making eight figures.
Johansson made one thing clear before signing off. "I'm sure we'll get down to that sooner than later."
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Sooner than later isn't a deadline. It's a promise with no date attached, and in Edmonton, those tend to stretch.
Should the Oilers lock up Matt Savoie now instead of waiting until after this season?
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