It's not a terrible deal but it's certainly not a good one for the Oilers. The reality is he's not a top ten player but now he's payed like one. Nobody who isn't going to contend for Hart's year in and year out should ever get a top 10 contract for a second deal. Chiarelli is a pretty awful contract negotiator he never gets a value contract, not even when a guy is going onto he's second contract. If you overpay everybody it's going to be tough to compete. I suppose it's why he value's picks so much, because he knows the only value contracts he can get are the ones he doesn't have to negotiate.
Draisaitl will be worth he's deal i'd bet but not immedietly and he didn't have the resume to garner it. I look at two guys in Kopitar and Johansen and i can't understand why he got 8.5. Kopitar is an obvious comparable who got 10.5 last year, reportedly what Draisaitl's camp wanted, and right off the bat it's obvious he's well behind in Kopitar in terms of pay scale. Kopitar has had years and years of production comparable to Draisaitl's year last season, was the #1 center doing it, had less help, won two cups, is obviously better defensively, and most importantly was eligible to become a UFA. It's not even close for Draisaitl to ask for what he got, right off the hop it's clear he's worth 2 million less without considering UFA status, and when you add that in it should have been 1 to .5 less per year.
The you look at Johansen who was 2 years and not 5 from UFA status, had just as good of a playoffs and is a #1 center who's produced around Draisaitl's rate for years. Yet Draisaitl is getting paid more. Why? Factor in UFA status and it's clear he should of been paid a bit less.
At the end of the day the Oilers overpaid Draisaitl by 1 million. Will it cripple them? No. Will Draisaitl probably be worth it? I'd say so. However in a league where RFA control is supposed to get you some cap space and other teams have locked in comparable players for far better market value it hurts the Oilers.
This team has been unable to sign many value contracts beyond ELC's and the one's they have were largely risky propositions. Klefbom was a great signing but i think that was in the works prior to Chiarelli and was certainly a gamble. Larsson is a great deal but the Oilers paid a dear price in Hall to get him. Maroon was a stroke of genius and is great value but he's on his last year. Talbot's a great deal but it was a gamble at the time. Sekera and Russell are certainly not value contracts. Nuge, Lucic, Kassian, Letestu, Strome aren't value deals. Jokinen maybe is but he was a buyout for Florida for a reason and he's also on a 1 year deal. The Oilers also have buyout money for Pouliot, Korpikoski on the books and Fayne in the minors. The team is going to have to make some killer deals for Nurse, Benning, Caggiula, Slepyshev, Brossoit, Strome, and hopefully Brossoit moving forward to have any chance of supplying the core with a quality supporting cast and Chiarelli hasn't proven astute in doing so. He's a good GM and i like he's aggressiveness but man he sure caves in contract negotiations, hopefully that's a trend limited to the teams stars.
