The Edmonton Oilers opened free agency on Friday by signing centre Kyle Turris to a two-year contract.
It’s reported to be worth $1.65 million per season.
“A great team moving in the right direction with two of the best players in the world,” Turris said of the Oilers. “I really feel the opportunity to win here is coming.”
“He’s a veteran player. It was a bit of a struggle for him in Nashville,” said Oilers general manager Ken Holland.
“We believe he can give us some secondary scoring in the bottom six.”
Turris, 31, had nine goals and 31 points for the Nashville Predators last season. The Predators bought out the remaining four years on Turris’ contract earlier in the week.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity they gave me. For whatever reason, it didn’t work out,” said Turris.
Turris, who was drafted third overall by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2007, has 416 points in 726 career games.
The Oilers also inked winger Tyler Ennis to a one-year contract worth $1 million. Ennis came to the Oilers in a trade with Ottawa on Feb. 24. He suffered a broken leg in Game 3 of the Oilers’ qualifying round series against Chicago.
Holland had identified a third-line centre and a goaltender as priorities in free agency. While Turris slots in as the third-line centre, no goaltender was added to ride along with Mikko Koskinen.
“(We) talked to a lot of people today. At this time, don’t have much going on. Obviously, a lot of goalies have gone off the board. We’ll see what happens here over the next period of time,” said Holland, who added that the Oilers were one of many teams looking at Jacob Markstrom, who wound up signing with Calgary for six years and $36 million.
On defence, Matt Benning signed with Nashville after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Oilers on Wednesday. Oscar Klefbom may not be available for at least some of next season because of a shoulder issue. Holland will add on the back end, but don’t expect Alex Pietrangelo or Tyson Barrie.
“There are a couple of defenceman out there that are commanding a lot of the attention. We won’t be in those sweepstakes. We don’t have that kind of cap space,” explained Holland.
“I’m going to be looking for more, for lack of better words, under the radar defencemen. Ideally, a veteran, a guy that’s been around the league a little bit.”
Goaltender Anton Forsberg and forward Alan Quine were signed to one-year deals on Friday while forward Seth Griffith got a two-way, two-year deal. Those players will likely play primarily with Bakersfield in the AHL.
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