It seems like Ales Hemsky has been dangled in trade rumors forever in Edmonton. Now that he’s got one year left in his contract (with a $5 million cap hit) and the Oilers have less than $2 million in cap space, it seems he’s more popular than ever with rumormongers.
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal spitballed a few ideas for teams who might be interested in the 29 year-old winger and thinks Ottawa makes the most sense.
The Ottawa Senators would seem the most likely to reach out to MacTavish on Hemsky because they lost right-winger/captain,soul of the franchise Daniel Alfredsson to Detroit when free-agency opened. They also traded Swede Jakob Silfverberg to get Bobby Ryan from Anaheim and might move him to right side from his usual left. After Ryan it’s third-liner Chris Neil, Eric Condra and J. Pageau, and they do have more than $11 million in cap room. But, maybe Sens’ owner Eugene Melnyk wants to save money not spend more.
Intriguing thought here and Matheson says Colin Greening is a guy who could go back to Edmonton in return. After all, the Oilers could use a guy with some grit.
There’s that money issue, however, and if that is a problem for the Sens, that makes it a little trickier as Hemsky is owed $5.5 million this season. If the Oilers want to free up their cap worries, Ottawa’s cash worries (if they exist) would be a big sticking point.
Related: MacTavish ‘comfortable’ with Hemsky remaining an Oiler