Watch: Colton Dach on video
The Edmonton Oilers have one restricted free agent left to sign, and they are deliberately not signing him yet. Colton Dach‘s agent, Gerry Johansson, told Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal that the team has communicated it needs more time to work things out. The reason, per the report: Edmonton wants to lock in an external acquisition before deciding what kind of contract Dach gets.
The sequencing makes sense from the team’s side of the table. The Oilers have a little under $6 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, and a roster built to win now around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. If management spends most of that room on a middle-six forward or a defenseman from outside, Dach signs a league-minimum-adjacent deal with whatever is left. If the outside addition never materializes, Edmonton can afford to be slightly more generous. Either way, the front office keeps its flexibility by making Dach wait — something it can do because, as a restricted free agent with no arbitration filing, he has little leverage to force the issue.
Why it matters
Dach’s season made the case for keeping him without making the case for paying him. The 23-year-old winger produced 13 points across 61 games split between Chicago and Edmonton, but he also landed 219 hits — bottom-six physicality that playoff rosters need and that costs far more to buy on the open market than to re-sign internally. He is the kind of depth piece a capped-out contender wants at the smallest possible number, which is precisely why the number is the last thing Edmonton wants to commit to right now.
The practical read: expect a short-term, low-dollar deal once the Oilers make their outside move, with training camp as the effective deadline. Nothing in the report suggests friction between the sides — just a team managing its last $6 million carefully in a summer when every contender is doing the same.
For fantasy, Dach is off the radar in standard leagues but worth a note in deep formats that count hits. A full season in Edmonton’s bottom six at his 2025-26 physical pace would put him among the more productive bangers available on waivers, and any injury-driven promotion up the lineup comes with McDavid-adjacent upside no other fourth-liner in the league can claim.
