Oilers dump another big money contract from their lineup

According to a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli, the Edmonton Oilers will make $4 million winger Connor Brown a healthy scratch for tonight's game against the New Jersey Devils.

Check it out:

The worst part about it all though is that it affects the Oilers moreso next year than this year, in the case of Brown. You see, he signed a $4 million contract, but $3.25 million of it is paid out in a performance bonus which gets added onto next year's cap. All Brown had to do to meet his bonus was play in at least 10 games, which he has done. So next season, when Brown isn't even on the team's roster, the Oilers will be saddled with a $3.25 million cap hit. Ouch...

The 29 year old forward has one point in 23 games for the Oilers so far this season. Double ouch...

This news, of course, is merely an example of a much larger problem for the Oilers. This team just continued to struggle thanks in large part to some poor contracts handed out by GM Ken Holland. The Brown was a good contract in theory, if the Oilers had used the first 10 games to accurately gauge whether or not Brown is a good enough player to warrant a bonus for next season. He wasn't even close to being an NHL quality player, yet the team kept him in the lineup and now they owe him $3.25 million next season. The Jack Campbell contract was terrible the moment it was signed and the Darnell Nurse contract might be the worst in the entire NHL.

All of this is a long way of saying that Ken Holland needs to go in Edmonton.

Besides making a shrewd move to acquire Mattias Ekholm and having Evander Kane drop into his lap, Holland has done very little to surround Oilers' superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with the supporting staff they need to get to the next level. If indeed both McDavid and Draisaitl leave in the coming years, it'll be on Holland for not doing enough to re-mold this team's roster around them.