The Edmonton Oilers are starting to shake things up, as they have packaged Klim Kostin and Kailer Yamamoto in a trade to the Detroit Red Wings for Future Considerations.
Oilers Trade Kostin, Yamamoto To Detroit
🔁 TRADE 🔁
The #Oilers have traded forward Kailer Yamamoto & forward Klim Kostin to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations.#LetsGoOilers
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 29, 2023
Kostin, 24, has spent the past season with Detroit after acquiring him in a trade with the St. Louis Blues. With the Oilers, Kostin notched 21 points in 57 games, while also getting 66 penalty minutes. Kostin played a few games for the AHl’s Bakersfield Condors, notching 4 points in 9 games.
Yamamoto, also 24, has spent his entire pro career with the Edmonton Oilers but has struggled to get to the level that was expected of him. This past season, Yamamoto put up 25 points in 58 games. He put up a career-high last season, notching 25 points in 81 games.
Kostin’s deal is worth only $750,000 AAV, and Yamamoto’s extension kicks in with this upcoming season, netting him an AAV of $3.1 million.
What This Means
For Detroit, they pick up two decent depth pieces to help bolster the bottom 6. Although the offense portion will pretty much be provided by Yamamoto, they will be picking up some toughness with Kostin.
In this deal, Edmonton gets some much-needed cap space by shedding Kostin and Yamamoto’s contracts. While future considerations usually ends up being nothing, they have the ability to grab a young prospect or a pick out of the deal if they want.
This leaves Edmonton with around 3.8 to 4 million dollars worth of cap space to bolster the roster by either trades or free agency, especially with Free agency being right around the corner.
With Connor McDavid being in his eighth season, the oilers are wasting no time making moves in order to get them closer and closer to contending for the Stanley Cup.
