Ryan Whitney went through a rough season with the Edmonton Oilers. The team made him a healthy scratch at times despite the fact that he came with an $4 million annual cap hit. However, he did manage to heat up in the latter half of the shortened season.
Now that his six-year, $24 million contract has expired, the Oilers have moved on, but the 30-year-old offensive defenseman hasn’t been able to do the same. At least not yet.
“Still waiting/looking for the right fit for him (Whitney),” his agent Paul Krepelka told the Edmonton Journal.
“It’s been a unique free-agency period. After initial signings on Day Oene, the secondary phase dried up very quickly. Would guess a lot of players will be waiting for find work up and including training camp.”
As Krepelka suggested, Whitney isn’t the only player in this position. Several noteworthy veteran defensemen, including Ron Hainsey, Tomas Kaberle, and Tom Gilbert are still looking for work.
At this stage of the free agent market, they could all end up inking one-year “show me” contracts in the hope of doing better in the 2014 free agent market.
