The Edmonton Oilers have been one of the teams closest to the Salary Cap ceiling in recent years. With players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it is easy to see why they are paid the salaries they are. However, with other contracts, it is a harder pill to swallow. <h3>Edmonton Oilers Defensive Struggles</h3> The Oilers in 2022-23 gave up the fourth most amount of goals of any team in their division. The other three teams all ended up with high spots in the draft while Edmonton was left fighting their defensive lapses in the playoffs. This normally would be a simple solution add better defensemen and move out the struggling players. However, with Edmonton, their second highest-paid player is Darnell Nurse. While Nurse is a solid defenseman he is not elite offensively or defensively. This means a solid Top-4 defenseman is being massively overpaid with another defenseman Mattias Ekholm being 6 million dollars into his late 30s. Add in the fact that Evan Bouchard the team's top offensive defenseman still needs a contract and a major problem becomes clear. Evan Bouchard, a restricted free agent, will command more than the five and a half million dollars the Oilers have in cap space. <h3>Oilers Miss Out on Scoring Winger</h3> Due to the Oilers' cap trouble and Ken Holland treading water to keep his own players the team missed out on one of the best goal-scorers in free agency Vladimir Tarasenko. Tarasenko signed a one-year 5-million dollar deal with the Ottawa Senators. While it is true Tarasenko has slowed down in recent years he is still a good depth-scoring forward with playoff experience and Stanley Cup pedigree. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/senators/status/1684699962196508672'> </a></blockquote></div> If the Oilers can't figure out their Salary Cap situation soon their contention window could slam shut even with a core as good as they have. <a href='https://www.hockeyotb.com/nhl-team/edmonton-oilers/Oilers-Miss-Out-on-Important-Forward-Because-of-Bad-Management' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>As Read On - Hockey OTB - Oilers Miss Out on Important Forward Because of Bad Management</a>