Jack Campbell a buyout candidate 9 games into his career as an Oiler? Here's what it would cost Edmonton

Jack Campbell gave up 7 goals on 32 shots last night for a .781 save percentage in an 7-2 loss to Carolina. While he holds a 5-4 record in his 9 games as an Oiler, his play has been severely underwhelming. considering the Oilers are giving him $5M per season for the next 5 years.

So far, it looks like Kyle Dubas dodged a massive bullet by not giving Campbell the extra 2 years on the contract he wanted. Oilers fans laughed at the Leafs when they acquired Matt Murray and signed Ilya Samsonov in free agency and praised Campbell as their own saviour. My oh my, how the tables have turned. On social media, Oilers fans want the team to trade Campbell, waive him, or buy him out at the end of the season. Speaking of a buyout, lets humour Oilers fans and see what that would cost the team.

Since Campbell will have 4 years left on his deal after this one, the buyout would go for 8 years, until the 2030/31 season. For the majority of the buyout, aside from years three and four, the Oilers would be stuck with a cap hit of $1.5M, while in years three and four the cap hits would be $2.3M and $2.6M respectively. The Oilers would pay Campbell $12.3M over 8 years if they were to buy him out after this season. Does it give them cap space? Absolutely, but it still doesn't solve their goaltending issues as Stuart Skinner is still very unproven.

Leafs fans love Campbell as a person but seeing him struggle this much to start the year.. it's sort of poetic. He was offered an extension a year ahead of free agency. He chose to turn it down because he believed he was a starting goaltender. He then refused to negotiate in-season after posting Vezina Trophy caliber numbers in November because he wanted to boost his value even further. Following injuries and poor play, his value was tanked in Toronto and then it was the Leafs who opted not to negotiate. In the end, he got his money, but now he might lose the job that he held out to get.