The Edmonton Oilers and defenseman Justin Schultz will not reach arbitration after agreeing on a one-year, $3.9 million contract, according to Elliotte Friedman.
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/621371703902502916
The deal is a slight raise on the one-year $3.675 million deal Schultz played under last season.
Last season Schultz put in six goals and a career-high 25 assists through 81 games. However, if you account for ice time and games played, his scoring rate at even strength wasn’t a significant step forward. He had a 0.5 A/60 for the third straight season and his 0.8 P/60 is a slight step back from a 0.9 P/60 the season before.
The significant change for Schultz last season — that likely should have resulted in some more production — was the move from 0.9% ZSO%Rel for two straight seasons to a 19.9% ZSO%Rel.
So, he was seeing a lot more time in the offensive zone, but wasn’t able to turn that into increased offensive production. Though it’s notable that he did have positive relative Corsi for the first time in his career, with a score-adjusted CF%Rel of 3.3%.
Schultz will still be a restricted free agent at the end of this contract.
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Advanced stats via War on Ice.