Trent Frederic to reportedly sign max-term contract with Oilers

The Oilers are determined to make Trent Frederic more than a rental.

And it sounds like they're going to go all out to do that, with Frederic and the Oilers expected to come to terms on a maximum eight-year deal to keep Frederic, who is a pending unrestricted free agent, in Edmonton.

Word of the potential eight-year pact has grown in recent days, and the latest update from St. Louis-based NHL Insider Andy Strickland indicated that the deal will be in the range of $4 million per season.

Frederic, who arrived to Edmonton from Boston just ahead of the 2025 trade deadline and battling an injury, made just one regular-season appearance for the Oilers and scored one goal and four points in 22 playoff games this spring. The cold spell was a painful one, too, as Frederic went without a point during Edmonton's six-game Final loss to the Panthers, and had just one assist in 16 games after the Oilers' first-round series victory over the Kings.

Overall, Frederic recorded eight goals and 15 points in 58 regular-season games between the Bruins and Oilers, a heavy dip from what were career-highs in both goals (18) and points (40) during the 2023-24 season.

Given the way the cap is jumping not only this year but for the foreseeable future, Frederic checking in at close to $4 million per season is not a shock. That's going to become the going rate for third-line players as we progress further into this exploding cap world, if we're not already there.

But the term is the real shock here, as getting an eight-year deal after such an injury-hampered season is a definite surprise. And that's without getting into how players with Frederic's skill-set tend to age as they enter their early-30s.

It's also surprising given the Oilers' laundry list of things to figure out this offseason. With just $12 million or thereabouts in cap space, the Oilers still need to figure out how they're going to re-sign defenseman Evan Bouchard (32 goals and 149 points in 163 games over the last two seasons), build out the rest of their forward grouping, and make some sort of change in goal given the struggles of Stuart Skinner as the franchise's No. 1 goaltender.

Frederic at about $4 million would eat into a third of that cap space and impact those plans.

The Bruins, meanwhile, were probably never going up to eight years with Frederic, and instead took what they could for him, with a 2025 second-round pick (No. 51 overall) and defensive prospect Max Wanner acquired for Frederic.

Drafted by the Bruins with the No. 29 overall pick in 2016, and part of the Cam Neely trade tree that goes back to 1985, Frederic recorded 55 goals and 109 points in 337 career games with the Black and Gold.