SCARY TIMES FOR OILERS FANS

Hyman would help, but then what?

With every day, the Edmonton Oilers become a different hockey club.

But at the end of the day will they be a better hockey club?

Will they be a better regular season team?

And, particularly, will they be a better playoff team?

The move du jour on the table Thursday of free agent

Zach Hyman making the move from Toronto to Edmonton for Ryan-nugent Hopkins money would definitely make the Oilers top-six complete.

Both Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl would have a

Nuge when they play apart. When the Dynamic Duo is together, Nugent-hopkins would go to centre with Hyman.

And that, almost certainly, would make the Oilers a better team.

The Oilers fan base is definitely on a wild ride this week and next week.

First there's the acquisition of three-time Stanley Cup champion, two-time Norris Trophy winner Duncan Keith. Then they're gutted by the difficulty to deal with the decision by second pairing stay-at-home defenceman Adam Larsson not to stay at home — to divorce the Dynamic Duo and depart to the expansion Seattle Kraken for the same money.

Then they're thrown in a different direction with the two-year deal for 39-year-old netminder Mike Smith.

Normally this is the time of year when hockey general managers take their holidays.

Normally the NHL Draft in late June is well in the rear-view mirror, the free agent frenzy would have peaked three weeks ago and only a handful of available players would be left. And there would have been no expansion draft to wedge in there.

But as broadcaster Bob Cole would call it right now, “everything is happening!”

And it's the ultimate stress test for almost everybody in the game, particularly if you are involved working for a team like the Edmonton Oilers, cheering for them or even covering them.

There's a lot of swing on what happens during these couple of weeks with the Mcdavid and Draisaitl window now wide open, salary-cap space finally available and more moving parts than usual.

Thursday, in answer to a question posed by Ryan Rishaug of TSN on Ken Holland's pre-draft Zoom call, the Oilers general manager wasn't revealing much. But he was quite candid about that.

In handcuffs in his first two years on the job because of the salary cap, Holland finally has salary-cap room to make the Oilers better and he confessed that because of the Mcdavid-draisaitl window, he is going forward with a strategy of using term as the hook to land a few big fish.

That is definitely what he's dangling out there to Hyman with either seven or the maximum eight years at $5 millionand-change money.

“The answer would be yes. I think that when we had the press conference announcing the extension to Ryan Nugent-hopkins, Ryan went from a cap number of $6 million to a cap number of $5.1. When you are 28 years of age and in the prime of your career, not too often do their cap numbers go down. So in return to get a reduced cap number, I went to the max length of eight years.

“I've been here for two years and I don't know how many times I've been asked by the media, `Do I feel pressure to try to win now?'

“The last couple of years we didn't have a lot of cap space. We obviously filled a lot of holes with players making a million dollars a year. We have some more cap space now so I am going to maximize that cap space. If players that I think are going to be important to this team, would I consider giving term to get more cap space, that's something I would consider.

“Obviously we have some great young players. Connor is

24. Leon is 25. Darnell Nurse is

26. Nuge is 28. There are other players in there. We have a core group of players that are in their prime now.

“I have to put players on the team thinking that they're going to be good two and three years from now. It has to be about being the best we can be on an every night, every year basis.”

I wrote that with the Nugent-hopkins signing, but it was interesting. Especially considering the shocking decision by Larsson, to hear Holland come out and put it up front and on the table — almost advertising the fact — like he did Thursday.

If Holland lands Hyman, as expected, he'll likely have

$12 million to work with to replace Larsson, find a third-line centre and a backup goalie.

There's a way and the will to do it.

RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES Guillaume Brisebois of the Canucks tries to check Zach Hyman of the Maple Leafs in Vancouver back in April. Edmonton could make excellent use of free agent Hyman, Terry Jones suggests.