Why Jack Roslovic didn’t get a bigger contract in free agency

The last of the big fish has finally found his tank.

Jack Roslovic, the only remaining big-name free agent from last year’s class, signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night. The deal comes after Roslovic, 28, couldn’t parlay a 22-goal 2024-25 campaign into a long-term deal this summer, leaving him unsigned until the first week of the regular season.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by The Fourth Period editor-in-chief David Pagnotta to discuss Roslovic’s deal and what he may have left on the table.

Tyler Yaremchuk: It’s insane that this took until the second week of October for Roslovic to find an NHL home. It feels like a massive fumbling of the bag, as the kids say.

David Pagnotta: It was looking like $3-to-$4 million for him on a multi-year deal, but for whatever reason, they thought there were other options available on the table. That was obviously not the case. He ended up switching agents and they end up getting this.

This deal shows me it’s a “prove-me deal,” but at the same time, “I’m scratching your back, you’re scratching mine,” in that he’s coming in at this $1.5 million cap hit, but if things go well, the Oilers will honor something on an extension.

The cap hit is low, the Oilers don’t have much room to play with, they want to see what this guy can do. Can he slot into their mid-six? Is he going to be up top? Positionally, where are they going to put this guy? You can try one thing and it doesn’t work out, so then you have to move things around. He missed camp, so it’s going to take a bit of time to get there.

At the end of the day, hindsight is what it is. Do you go back and sign a three-year, $10 million contract? You can take what you get now. These are the cards that were dealt, and he’ll play them out.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…