Confirmed with Link: Draisaitl re-signs 8y 8.5M AAV

[ThePhoenixx]

I cant understand why you cant understand that.

That million has to come from somewhere and it has to be done for 8 years.
Like SK13 has posted...there are implications with this that will reverberate through the makeup of the team.

RNH is as good as gone.

People that think the cap will just continue to go up should have no problem buying real estate at its peak. Nothing just keeps going up year after year....I expect that to be true with the cap as well.

Groceries.

 

[OilTastic]

4th biggest AAV coming off an ELC in NHL history


Crosby, Malkin, McDavid, Draisaitl

but this is what it costs to keep players now. its just reality.


As mentioned RNH is gonzo, Maroon too (but I think that was always the plan) Letestu prob gone as well

Do you think if this was a $7.5 million deal it would make Nugent-Hopkins more likely to be kept?

i never thought Nuge was long for the Oilers....now that Leon and McD are signed, Chia will likely try to dump his contract and save as much as he can possibly do. don't be surprised if because of this we don't get "fair value" for him. Maroon i never expected to be back simply because if he has another 20+ goal season, he's going to ask for likely $4 mil/per and the Oilers would likely trade him for a pick at the deadline. same with Letestu, who's shown when used properly he can be effective, and had a strong playoff. if he puts up the same numbers this year as last and does well in the playoffs, he'll ask for significantly more and the Oilers would likely walk and try to trade at the deadline for a pick as well. my 2 cents.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

McDavid was slumping by anybody's standards in December (1-5-6 in 14 games at even strength, with 0 even strength points at home).

That's why Drai was put on that line in January.

Can't deny the chemistry or its importance to success.

Worse than I remembered. Just recalled that Drai really carried that line on his back.

Agree with your post entirely though.

 

[boxhamster]

Good Deal for both. Draisaitl played better in 1 Season as RNH ( 6Mio) and Eberle (6Mio) in all there Oilers Years together.

 

[sepHF]

This deal makes Scheifele's agent look incompetent.

i'm trying to figure out who his agent is. It's someone with Octagon hockey, and they seem to do very well for their players

 

[sundaysleftovers]

McDavid and Drai at $21 million > Hall, RNH and Ebs at $18 million

 

[Panda Bear]

You're drunk if you're not okay with this deal.

Feel free to go watch some playoff games where Draisaitl centred his own line and dominated.

He's put up points with Hall, McDavid and then on his own line. He benefited from them, and they benefited from him.

 

[guymez]

Groceries.

Well done.

 

[Senor Catface]

Spends all season downplaying McDavid.

Calls him best passer in a generation when it's convenient in an attempt to argue against Draisaitl contract

Do you ever stay consistent? Or just consistently negative?

It's a little unreal actually.

Just a foul way to look at your own team.

 

[Gord]

You're drunk if you're not okay with this deal.

Feel free to go watch some playoff games where Draisaitl centred his own line and dominated.

going there, are you?
let me know when you start calling us stupid, too.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Spends all season downplaying McDavid.

Calls him best passer in a generation when it's convenient in an attempt to argue against Draisaitl contract

Do you ever stay consistent? Or just consistently negative?

 

[Aerrol]

I don't think the sky is falling but I'm a little shocked at the amount of posters expecting continual growth from Drai. What exactly makes him different from Hall, RNH, and Ebs? I see a lot of the same posters spewing 'good riddance' nonsense about Eberle now staunchly defending this deal. Makes no sense - Eberle had proven more when he got his 6 mill deal imo. Then he stagnated.

Definitely hoping that a winning environment and stable good coach combine with a different player for continued growth but I see very little evidence to guarantee it...

 

[McAsuno]

You're drunk if you're not okay with this deal.

Feel free to go watch some playoff games where Draisaitl centred his own line and dominated.

He's put up points with Hall, McDavid and then on his own line. He benefited from them, and they benefited from him.

Yep, I agree with the bolded.
Saw a poster on the Oilers reddit post this as well:

$8.5M is a lot for a 1W.
$8.5M is a lot for a 2C.
$8.5 is probably fair for a player who can take on either role, excel with the best player in the world, pick up slack in case of injury, and might even be a 1C in his own right.

 

[Aceboogie]

8.5 is .5 more than I thought. But honestly dont mind the deal. Draisaitl is going to be a beast. Guys like Toews.Kopy etc get 10 mil after 5 years in the league so 8.5 could be a discount soon

 

[guymez]

That was Klefbom and the team made a bet that worked out. (So far). You don't get the benefit of that situation and signing him to a 1-2 year deal. I think he is a better player that Johansen. Draisaitl showed in the playoffs (agree on the small sample size) that he could be the driver. Does the fact that Toews doesn't drive offense like Kane does bother them?

Of course. For some reason I thought Klefboms term was shorter.
However I dont think you can compare the Klefbom contract with the Draisaitl contract though. Simply because Klefboms contract was for a lower end top 4 dman which was the low end of his potential. If he didnt develop much more he was still going to provide full value.
Also the most important factor here is that Klefbom is a dman and dmen take longer to develop than forwards do.
Also...comparing a veteran player like Kane or Toews to Draisaitl isnt really valid IMO. Why...again...we are talking about 1 fricken season here.

I am not even saying it isn't an overpayment. Maybe $750K to $1M possibly. Does that mean we have to be frugal on the bottom two lines and pairing? For sure. Does it make me upset that we signed Draisaitl long term? No.

Again...all these comparables are being thrown around but few of them really apply because this is a 1 season sample size for Leon.
Its not about who I think Leon is better than...its about having enough of a sample size to make an educated guess on his value. Thats what this is about for me...1 season is not enough data.

Do you think if this was a $7.5 million deal it would make Nugent-Hopkins more likely to be kept?

Dont know. I do know that extra cap space is better than no cap space. I also know that I agree with Slats that this means more frugality on the bottom 6 forwards. The Hawks have been doing this for years but they have won 3 cups. The OIlers have won nothing and they are already going to have to send players down the road and replace them with cheaper versions.

 

[Aerrol]

8.5 is .5 more than I thought. But honestly dont mind the deal. Draisaitl is going to be a beast. Guys like Toews.Kopy etc get 10 mil after 5 years in the league so 8.5 could be a discount soon

While this seems quite likely to me, I'll feel a lot better after I see the Marner and Matthews deals hit

 

[awesomo]

so much for those posters saying drai doesnt wanna be in edmonton

 

[McAsuno]

I don't think the sky is falling but I'm a little shocked at the amount of posters expecting continual growth from Drai. What exactly makes him different from Hall, RNH, and Ebs? I see a lot of the same posters spewing 'good riddance' nonsense about Eberle now staunchly defending this deal. Makes no sense - Eberle had proven more when he got his 6 mill deal imo. Then he stagnated.

Definitely hoping that a winning environment and stable good coach combine with a different player for continued growth but I see very little evidence to guarantee it...

I'm not sure why its a shock to you that posters expect continual growth from Draisaitl who's still only 21. There was no issue with Hall imo. He just had to be the player to be moved for a stud on the backend in Larsson. Certainly Eberle and RNH value weren't good enough to acquire Larsson. RNH's issue is his inability to drive a line. His creativity went in the ground after Eakins and RNH's focusing of playing two way hockey. Granted, McLellan did mention that they'll try to get RNH's back in his previous playmaking form, so hopefully he has a strong season ahead of him.
I'm not even sure what the hell happened to Eberle last season. Was it injuries? Shooting coach in the previous summer? New stick? Who knows..? He was just flat out terrible last season in general. Two measly assists while being invisible generally in the playoffs sealed his goodbye, unfortunately.

For Draisaitl and many other young players on this team including McDavid, Klefbom, Larsson, Caggiula, Slepyshev, Nurse, etc.. they all had their playoffs cup of coffee, and granted they're even more motivated and hungry for the cup.
Meanwhile new guys like Strome are hoping to get a fresh start with the club. A winning environment changes the complexion of the team entirely.

 

[PBandJ]

I'm over the moon.

So glad the days if losing guys are over. We can actually keep our elite players.

 

[bucks_oil]

i never thought Nuge was long for the Oilers....now that Leon and McD are signed, Chia will likely try to dump his contract and save as much as he can possibly do. don't be surprised if because of this we don't get "fair value" for him. Maroon i never expected to be back simply because if he has another 20+ goal season, he's going to ask for likely $4 mil/per and the Oilers would likely trade him for a pick at the deadline. same with Letestu, who's shown when used properly he can be effective, and had a strong playoff. if he puts up the same numbers this year as last and does well in the playoffs, he'll ask for significantly more and the Oilers would likely walk and try to trade at the deadline for a pick as well. my 2 cents.

Lol... we aren't going to be trading away important pieces at the deadline. We will be buyers. Why would we trade Maroon or Letestu for a couple of 2nd rounders (at best)... that's all that they'd be worth.

We are in win now mode... with McD, Drai, Nuge and a cheap effective D-core, our M-O is going to be finding serviceable wingers that we can use in discard. We're built down the middle like most championship teams.

 

[ElysiumAB]

This still scares me.

I've watched every game in recent years (as well as a lot of other teams), and I'm not sure I've seen a player with as low of a valley (slow, invisible) and as high of a peak (dominant) - both for stretches of 15-20 games with no average in between. He was bad for a BIG stretch of games.

Hopefully he gets more consistent and continues where he left off. If he does, this contract is great. If not, it could be a huge mistake.

 

[PaPaDee]

Very happy to have him back, although not thrilled with the AAV on his contract. Anytime you're committing huge $ and term for a player that young (and relatively unproven), there's risk involved. Having said that, I feel he's a relatively safe bet moving forward. He also brings more to the table than just the points.

 

[Aerrol]

I'm not sure why its a shock to you that posters expect continual growth from Draisaitl who's still only 21. There was no issue with Hall imo. He just had to be the player to be moved for a stud on the backend in Larsson. Certainly Eberle and RNH value weren't good enough to acquire Larsson. RNH's issue is his inability to drive a line. His creativity went in the ground after Eakins and RNH's focusing of playing two way hockey. Granted, McLellan did mention that they'll try to get RNH's back in his previous playmaking form, so hopefully he has a strong season ahead of him.
I'm not even sure what the hell happened to Eberle last season. Was it injuries? Shooting coach in the previous summer? New stick? Who knows..? He was just flat out terrible last season in general. Two measly assists while being invisible generally in the playoffs sealed his goodbye, unfortunately.

For Draisaitl and many other young players on this team including McDavid, Klefbom, Larsson, Caggiula, Slepyshev, Nurse, etc.. they all had their playoffs cup of coffee, and granted they're even more motivated and hungry for the cup.
Meanwhile new guys like Strome are hoping to get a fresh start with the club. A winning environment changes the complexion of the team entirely.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but you're say the key ingredient is the winning environment? I hope that's true. Off the top of my head, the other equivalent I can think of in Jeff Skinner also struggled on a bad team, and then you have Toews who was more developed/older and Bobby Ryan who I would agree seems to have had more issues with drive than Drai (though I always felt this was overblown for Ryan much like Kessel).

Still, I think young players struggle to continue to develop all the time. I absolutely do not expect our entire team to take a step forward in development. There will 100% be disappointments. Even teams like the Penguins and Hawks, who seem to be wizards at development, fail to get the most out of some players. (see: Olli Maatta(health), Trevor Daley with Chi, Pittsburghs Russian pickup Plotnikov etc).

Nothing to do but wait and see though and I agree that I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic even if I am not thrilled with this offseason at all. Lots of talent still on the team to look forward to.

I also hope we see Drai develop even more of a mean streak. If he does, him paired with McDavid would be unstoppable.

 

[CupofOil]

Welp the Oilers have committed to their Toews/Kane, Crosby/Malkin, Getzlaf/Perry. Such is the price for the most productive duo in the league I suppose, especially when they're 21, and you're only buying prime years.

Also with a cap hit like that, you've got think he's going to be glued to McDavid's wing (outside of when the team needs a change of pace). I love Drai, but he's not going to be able to justify that money playing in a secondary role. It wouldn't surprise me to see Lucic added to that line full time over Maroon, this team can't afford another big payday. Thankfully that's already a successful PP unit, so I'm not too concerned about chemistry.

Lucic-McDavid-Draisaitl
Jokinen-RNH-Puljujarvi
Maroon-Strome-Slepyshev
Caggiula-Letestu-Kassian

This team is really betting on the cap going up. Better hope the Canadian dollar can keep bouncing back, plus adding Vegas should help league revenue.


How important is it that this team has its top pairing locked up for 8 million for the next half decade?

I'm not a fan of the contract either but this is a ridiculous comment IMO. How can you possibly know that he won't thrive anchoring his own line? It's not like he has been a bum away from McDavid, it's just that the sample size is too small.
My problem with the deal is that he's unproven as a full time center, not that he isn't capable of being a top center in this league.
Don't know how anyone can say that he will never thrive away from McDavid without knowing what he can do in that role first.

 

[bucks_oil]

I don't think the sky is falling but I'm a little shocked at the amount of posters expecting continual growth from Drai. What exactly makes him different from Hall, RNH, and Ebs? I see a lot of the same posters spewing 'good riddance' nonsense about Eberle now staunchly defending this deal. Makes no sense - Eberle had proven more when he got his 6 mill deal imo. Then he stagnated.

Definitely hoping that a winning environment and stable good coach combine with a different player for continued growth but I see very little evidence to guarantee it...

Well... one man's opinion, but with possible apologies to Nuge, what sets Drai apart from Hall and Ebs is his hockey sense. Hall and Ebs wowed us with skill, speed, shooting accuracy, high risk/reward play. Those guys can fall back to earth when their game "matures".

What you like (as a hockey administrator) about Drai is that he generates his offense from strong fundamentals. He doesn't force passes, he breaks up plays in the defensive zone, he gets the puck moving in the right direction and he uses his teammates with strong, tactical offense... he's already learned about risk-reward and situational play and it doesn't negatively affect his offensive contributions. In short, his offense comes from a good defense and strong puck possession play.