We’ve officially reached that time of the off-season when literally nothing is happening, and that makes the thought of real news coming down the pipe all the more exciting. So when that potential news happens to be about Leon Draisaitl’s new contract, the latest rumblings from Bob Stauffer got my full attention.
On Monday night’s episode of Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer speculated that Draisaitl’s contract will likely be a max-length extension, as opposed to some of the shorter deals rumoured recently on social media. From my side of the computer screen, Stauffer’s words were like music to my ears and got me way more excited than I probably should have been, but I’ve also been hurt countless times before, so seeing a star player want to stick in Edmonton is something we’re still getting used to.
“It’s going to be a seven or eight-year deal. It’s probably going to be an eight-year deal, realistically. The reality is that for the Edmonton Oilers organization, for the success of the Edmonton Oilers, the two biggest things they need to do in the next two years is get extensions done with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. And that’s not lost on (GM) Stan Bowman, who did resign both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to eight-year deals at $10.5 million. It is my belief that we are probably looking at an eight-year deal for Leon. And if I was representing Leon, I would want an eight-year deal for a 29-year-old player.”
If we’re operating under the assumption that Stauffer isn’t just making things up to fill time here — he’s not — then it’s hard not to feel excited about one of the league’s best players wanting to stick around for the maximum allowable timeframe. Yeah, he’s going to get his money, but the larger point is that Edmonton is no longer a market that stars use as a layover on their way to bigger things. While I know that some folks would prefer not to have Draisaitl locked in well into his 30s — I understand why that sentiment is out there — but I can tell you I won’t be worrying about that problem any time soon.
A few weeks back, one of Draisaitl’s representatives, Jiri Poner, spoke with German outlet Eishockey NEWS and said he was “very confident that there will be an agreement with Edmonton in the end that both sides will be happy with. I can still remember the s—storm Peter Chiarelli had to endure when he gave Leon the contract for $8.5 million a year, and (Draisaitl) has been playing at least 30 percent below his value for three years. But that’s not a complaint.”
If Draisaitl does lock in an extension at some point soon, it will be fascinating to see what the cap hit will be on this baby. His current eight-year contract signed under Peter Chiarelli carries a very team-friendly $8.5 million cap hit, and whatever he extends for will be a significant increase from that number. I’ve seen people suggest $14 million. I’ve seen people say he’s not worth more than the $12.5 million Connor McDavid makes now. The truth, I’m assuming, will land somewhere in the middle.
If I were a betting man — I am — I’d guess that something in the $13.0 to $13.8 million range would make the most sense. Anything over $13.25 would make him the highest-paid player in the NHL, beating the four-year extension signed by Auston Matthews in August of last year. Of course, the major difference would be that Matthews signed for half of the term that Draisaitl is reportedly seeking, and that has me drinking the Kool-Aid about the Oilers getting better value out of #29’s deal than Toronto gets from #34.
You can call me a homer all you want, but you’d be hard-pressed to convince me otherwise.
Of course, there’s an outside chance that Draisaitl takes a team-friendly deal that falls well below general expectations, but I think what’s more realistic is assuming that he’ll get a minimum of $13 million per season. While there’s no doubt that is a massive number, the Oilers clearly want Draisaitl to stick around rather than risk losing him for nothing next offseason and that means they’ll have to pay for the privilege.
Drai is easily one of the best players in the NHL, and if the Oilers don’t pay him, then someone else surely will, but the good news is that it sounds like we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out how many Brinks trucks will be backing up to his place. If you remember the Poner quotes from a few weeks back, he indicated that Draisaitl’s camp is looking to get a deal done “by the end of August,” which happens to be right around the corner from where we are today.
Are we days out? Weeks out? I don’t care much personally, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited any time Bob Stauffer starts talking about long-term extensions as opposed to trade rumblings. While there’s no doubt this extension is going to be massive, I sure as hell prefer this kind of talk over what we used to get around here, which was a nearly unavoidable reality that Edmonton wasn’t a place that could keep its free agents. The times they are a changing, my friends, and this new scenery sure is beautiful to me.
