Oilers Insider Hockey News & Rumors

The Oilers traded Sam Gagner to Tampa for RW Teddy Purcell on Sunday and in Tampa it appears that Gagner may be placed on waivers on Monday for the sake of a buyout.

It seems strange to buyout a player with the potential upside of Gagner and playing alongside Stamkos, Gagner could be a 65-70 point player. But stranger things have happened.

Tampa is flooded with forwards and Yzerman has said he'd be looking to clear space. Calculating Purcells, buyout means the Lightning would have been stuck with a $1.5 million cap hit. If they buyout Gagner, it's a much more reasonable number at $633k.

Now imagine this...

What if Mac-T and Yzerman had that conversation and Yzerman let it be known that Gagner would be placed on waivers tomorrow. Only Florida and Buffalo would be in front of the Oilers on a waiver claim.

Now it's risky because I could see both teams loving to pick up Gagner at a cap number that wouldn't hurt either club. But, if he falls to Edmonton. Would the Oilers reclaim him?

We know that Mac-T likely had more than one trade lined up, or at least had a couple options. Could he realistically make the second trade too? -- trading one player twice in under 48 hours? I've never heard of it before and don't really know if the NHL allows it.

Can a player be traded after being picked up on waivers? I think there are rules to it, that a player must play at least a certain amount of games or be on the roster for a certain amount of time before being able to trade that waiver claimed player.

But, what if Edmonton would be happy taking Gagner back? Could they have gotten Purcell for nothing? Adding a proven RW NHL player with experience and a 65 point season under his belt for free?

That would be something...