Oilers Re-Sign Ryan Jones

The Edmonton Oilers took care of one of their top priorities this Summer, re-signing forward Ryan Jones to a new 2-year deal on Sunday afternoon.  The deal is reportedly worth $3 million over the duration of the deal, which works out to be a $1.5 million cap hit per season.  Jones was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but as expected, he was tipped as one of the more important pieces of the team going forward, bringing some versatility to the line-up, playing in some top six, but generally bottom six roles.

In 81 games for the Oilers, Jones finished with 18 goals and 7 assists for 25 points, not one of the higher scoring forwards in the league, but his physical play and forechecking was quite noticeable, making his value to the team much higher in the season.  As the team begins to mature around him, I would expect to see his offensive numbers rise up a little bit more, possibly to a point where he could be taken in some hockey pool drafts.  In 2011, Jones finished 234th among forwards in scoring, where 160 forwards were actually taken in the draft.

As outlined in the Pool Outlook a couple weeks ago, the Oilers are in fantastic shape, in terms of cap hits and such and Jones' $1.5 million hit will fit in quite nicely as well.  Currently, I have the Oilers up at $39.1 million for 16 players and one buyout, which leaves them plenty of room to possibly acquire some more veteran help to aid in the development of their youth.