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This comes from NHL insider Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff, who talks to Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now about how Edmonton could solve its salary cap bottleneck.
Edmonton is still just over the NHL’s $88 million salary cap because restricted free agents Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg have not yet signed.
Those facts prompted Seravalli and Stauffer to investigate what might happen to veteran Ceci, 30, in the final year of his $3.2 million-per-year contract.
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Seravalli said, “I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that there is a market for Cody Ceci. Right guards in that salary bracket are always in demand. Just look at the salary bracket this summer and see how much money is being spent on it. Cody Ceci is probably quite acceptable at that number. And for some teams stuck on the salary cap, he’s probably even interesting. There’s a ‘backup’ option if Jeff Jackson and the Oilers want it. In the meantime, we’ll see what develops.”
My opinion
1. First of all, it’s impressive that Seravalli and Stauffer are still hard at work on July 6 while most other NHL insiders are in the cabin. In fact, both Seravalli and Stauffer will be working all summer long, just like the cult of hockey, I might add. We’re the grinders of the NHL and we never take a day off.
2. Seravalli is competing with a handful of others for the title of the NHL’s best insider, which is all the more impressive because, to my knowledge, Seravalli is not an employee of an NHL broadcast partner. He runs his own show at The Daily Faceoff and has no business ties to the NHL. He is a true independent voice and an important part of a start-up company.
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3. Ceci is one of the Oilers’ most underrated players. Why? He’s a smart positional defender who is rarely defeated due to mental errors.
He and Darnell Nurse have had a solid start to the 2023-24 season, playing against strong competition and holding their own. Much of the negativity in some parts of the Oilers fanbase regarding Ceci stems from his play after the All-Star break, when he and Nurse fell apart as a defensive pairing.
For example, in the 2024 playoffs, Nurse and Ceci were on the ice at even strength, scoring six goals and giving up 14, with both players making far too many errors on Class A shots. But during that same time, when Ceci wasn’t playing with Nurse, he was playing solid hockey.
4. In the regular season after the All-Star break, when the Nurse-Ceci pairing started allowing quality shots and goals against, Ceci was +13 goals against and -11 goals against at even strength. In the playoffs without Nurse, he was +8 goals against and -7 goals against. The Oilers didn’t let Ceci get down when Nurse was on the ice. They held firm. Fascinating, isn’t it?
5. Ceci was one of the few Oilers to raise his level of play in the playoffs compared to the regular season. That was partly because he was mediocre in the regular season, but he built on that, especially when paired with Brett Kulak. Ceci made solid contributions to a team that was one game away from winning the Stanley Cup. He was last seen in Game 7 when he helped Mattias Janmark score a breakaway goal.
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6. I’ve always liked Ceci’s game and part of me believes he can still help the Oilers win now. But another part of me just saw Oilers hockey president Jeff Jackson trade Ryan McLeod for a top talent like Matthew Savoie. I wonder what he can get by trading Ceci.
However, if Ceci leaves, Edmonton will look to players like Troy Stecher, Josh Brown, Connor Carrick, Ben Gleason and Phil Kemp to play right guard. Is that smart? I’m not sure.
I have to say that keeping Carrick on the big team instead of Ceci or any of the others is an interesting idea. He’s an NHL/AHL in-between player, but he’s now become a strong puck mover at the AHL level. The thought of Edmonton having six defensemen with strong puck movement skills is intriguing. Carrick hasn’t played much in the NHL recently, but he has played 242 regular season games in his career.
7. Seravalli brought up the uncomfortable idea that another team might make an offer to Philip Broberg. If that were to happen and Edmonton decided to match it, the team would have signed Broberg to a long-term contract, albeit at a significant salary loss, and Ceci would have to be moved without much pressure.
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8. Seravalli also questioned whether Evander Kane could recover from his injuries and play for the Oilers in 2023-24. “It’s very unlikely that Kane will be healthy. Maybe the idea of rest and recovery and not having surgery – if they choose to do that – will pay off in the end. Because I think some of these guys go under the knife so quickly and have complicated surgeries that end up going on forever just to get back to the level they were at before. It’s more painful than helpful.”
However, Seravalli said he believes Kane still has a long way to go, which could bring the Long Term Injury Reserve into play. “LTIR is obviously an option. I think the Oilers want to know and see more before making any drastic decisions.”
9. Kane seemed eager to play in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but his body was obviously in a bad state at the time. His health is vital to the Oilers because he possesses a skill set few other NHL players can match: ferocious intimidation coupled with skill and grit.
At the cult of hockey
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