Evan Bouchard leads Edmonton's blue line at $10,500,000, and it turns out plenty of former Oilers defensemen only got paid once they left.
Philip Broberg, Brett Kulak, and Vincent Desharnais all signed major new deals recently, none of them with Edmonton.
Troy Stecher kept his own improbable career going too, signing two more years with Toronto at $1,350,000 annually.
Add it all up and the top six former Oilers defensemen, Darnell Nurse, Broberg, Adam Larsson, Cody Ceci, Kulak, and Desharnais, will actually out-earn Edmonton's current top six this season.
Nurse carries a $9,250,000 cap hit in San Jose, and Broberg just signed an eight year deal worth $8,000,000 annually in St-Louis.
Kulak inked four years at $4,500,000 in Colorado this July, while Desharnais landed four years at $4,200,000 in Washington.
Ceci previously signed four years at $4,500,000 in Los Angeles, and Larsson locked in four years at $5,250,000 in Seattle.
That's a combined $35,700,000 across six former Oilers blueliners, real money for players Edmonton once let walk.
Why Edmonton's current group still has the edge
Edmonton's own top six comes in lighter at $31,350,000 combined, led by Bouchard, Jake Walman at $7,000,000, and Connor Murphy at $4,100,000.
Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Shea both sit at $4,000,000, with Shakir Mukhamadullin rounding things out at $1,750,000.
The former Oilers group brings more grit. Nurse, Larsson, and Desharnais all play with real aggression, and Kulak and Broberg remain two of the better skaters in that entire group.
But Edmonton's current unit wins the puck movement argument easily. Bouchard, Walman, Ekholm, and Shea all move pucks at a level the ex-Oilers group simply doesn't match.
Bouchard posted 21 goals and 74 assists for 95 points in 82 games this past season, exactly the kind of offensive engine a possession-based team wants running the back end.
Edmonton plays a puck possession system, and that's precisely where this current group separates itself. Nurse, Ceci, and Desharnais all struggled to make key plays under playoff pressure during their Oilers tenures.
Kulak and Broberg are the two names Edmonton genuinely misses. Whether Walman and Murphy can match what those two provided likely comes down to health and durability more than raw talent.
Elsewhere among former Oilers, it was a rough year for several names, with Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones, Matt Benning, Dmitry Kulikov, William Lagesson, Kevin Gravel, and Jordan Oesterle mostly limited to the AHL or injury.
Alex Petrovic, Jeff Petry, and John Klingberg all had solid enough seasons given their age, with Petrovic landing a new two year deal in Florida.
Outside the NHL entirely, Joel Persson thrived with Vaxjo in Sweden, and Dmitri Samorukov climbed the depth chart with CSKA Moscow. Keegan Lowe is still grinding out a solid pro career, signing one more year with Vaxjo himself.
For Oilers fans, the real takeaway is simple. Edmonton's current defense corps costs less and moves the puck better, but the organization is still watching plenty of former pieces cash in elsewhere.
Does Edmonton's current defense corps beat the group of former Oilers blueliners?
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