A day before the NHL free agency period gets underway, the Edmonton Oilers announced they had agreed to a one-year contract extension with veteran forward Mattias Janmark.
The Oilers signed the Swedish-born 30-year-old last off-season. In his first season with Edmonton, he scored 10 goals and put up 15 assists in 66 regular season games.
Janmark averaged nearly 15 minutes of ice time per game and spent time on the Oilers’ penalty-killing unit where he managed to score a career-high three shorthanded goals in 2022-23.
In a news release issued Friday afternoon, the Oilers said the contract extension carries an average annual value of $1 million per season.
First drafted into the NHL by the Detroit Red Wings in 2013, Janmark has collected 183 points in 486 regular-season games in his NHL career.
Oilers free agency preview
The Oilers have several players set to hit free agency on Saturday. The most notable of the team’s potential unrestricted free agents are forward Nick Bjugstad who was acquired by the club ahead of the 2023 NHL trade deadline last season.
Some other Oilers who could become unrestricted free agents as of Saturday are forwards Devin Shore and Tyler Benson and defencemen Ryan Murray, Jason Demers and Slater Koekkoek.
The Oilers will also need to decide how to deal with a number of key restricted free agents this offseason, including defenceman Evan Bouchard and forward Ryan McLeod.
On Thursday the team cleared some cap space when they traded forward Kailer Yamamoto to the Detroit Red Wings along with forward Klim Kostin, who is set to become a restricted free agent on Saturday. The Oilers traded the two forwards to the Wings in return for “future considerations.”