Confirmed Signing with Link: [EDM] F Leon Draisaitl signs extension with the Oilers (8 years, $14M AAV; begins 2025-26)

[Honour Over Glory]

"Taken to Game 7" doesn't mean anything.

Oilers faced 3 division champion teams en route to the Stanley Cup. This bullshit about having an easy path is absolutely sad.

Can only imagine how much easier their path would have been if they had drawn a bunch of teams that squeaked into the playoffs.

Easy path, could barely beat a rookie goalie and even then, had the luck of a top 6 winger being out and still facing a 3rd string rookie in net. Very easy path but still struggled.

 

[Bank Shot]

Easy path, could barely beat a rookie goalie and even then, had the luck of a top 6 winger being out and still facing a 3rd string rookie in net. Very easy path but still struggled.

And don't even get you started on how much Dallas sucked.

Long story short, only your team vanquishes their opponents against all odds. Other teams were gifted their wins by divine mercy.

Must be nice to live in the land of simplistic tribalism where you reside.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

I highly doubt that Draisaitl and McDavid are going to fall off Lucic style once they get into their 30s. I'm willing to believe they will still be 80-90 point players in the twilight of those contracts if they can stay healthy. Great players age great.

The amount of time the Oilers will stay competitive almost entirely depend on how well they draft from now on. If their drafting continues to stink after Bouchard and McDavid resign, yes they will be stuck. Big time... I'd say that's actually more likely to occur but you never know.

It's going to be an interesting number of years but I'm really happy we resigned Leon even if he didn't take a discount. I'd be curious to know how much money and term a lot of the posters on here who are criticizing this deal would be willing to give him. I don't think there was any chance Leon was going to sign for 12 x 8 even if he decided to leave Edmonton and became a free agent. Somebody would of probably given him 15-16.5.

"Taken to Game 7" doesn't mean anything.

Oilers faced 3 division champion teams en route to the Stanley Cup. This bullshit about having an easy path is absolutely sad.

Can only imagine how much easier their path would have been if they had drawn a bunch of teams that squeaked into the playoffs.

Don't even waste your time. If the Oilers were to go 16-0 on the playoffs next year, certain people would still try to discredit them, talking about how it was a fluke and why they aren't actually a good team. Haters hate no matter what the team they hate does regardless of if they are doing poor or great.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

And don't even get you started on how much Dallas sucked.

Long story short, only your team vanquishes their opponents against all odds. Other teams were gifted their wins by divine mercy.

Must be nice to live in the land of simplistic tribalism where you reside.

must be fascinating to live in a world where delusional ideas are seen as legitimate solutions.

 

[BLONG7]

It would seem that the Oilers Cup has to be won this year, while the two big stars make a combined 21 M because next year, that number goes to 26.5M and add in 10 M for Bouchard...................then the year after those 3 will combine for probably 40M tegether and almost impossible to build the right team.
Big bucks guys...............big bucks. Not that those players don't deserve their money. It will just make the GM job tough.

 

[K1900L]

With Draisaitl signing this contract and McDavid's new contract in close proximity, Oilers' success in the future will be highly dependent on having successful drafts, especially in later rounds, and developing young prospects. They'll probably hope for bottom 6 players similar to Henrique who are willing to sign below market-value.

 

[KevinFinnerty]

Dat dere boi hood rich

 

[GOilers88]

Easy path, could barely beat a rookie goalie and even then, had the luck of a top 6 winger being out and still facing a 3rd string rookie in net. Very easy path but still struggled.

I'd love to know exactly what a real path to the cup would look like. If having to go through three division champs is easy, and they should have just run through everyone, can you please enlighten everyone as to what a real run would look like we'd all appreciate it.

So what would a tough, deserving path look like if Vancouver, Dallas and Florida don't count? Did Florida have an easy cup gifted to them seeing as how they barely got past a team that according to this forum has one of the worst defenses in the league, and the goalie who has posted some of the all time worst playoff numbers in history? Surely Florida didn't really earn it, right?

Are you implying that Demko takes the Canucks from easy out to legitimate? Are you implying the Canucks just aren't very good if having to go through them was part of an east path? Is it an implication that if they had to beat a good goalie, they wouldn't have made it through? Are you implying Oettinger isn't very good, or that Dallas isn't a good team?

Are you implying that having to win a game 7 constitutes barely getting through a series, or that teams that "have to" play a game 7 are proving they aren't very good?

Are you implying (with that very same logic of course) that Florida got lucky by drawing Edmonton in the finals since they had to go 7 games against a fluke team?

Please, expand on your thoughts.

 

[Rubi]

Draisaitl jumped from 11.33% of the cap to 15.91% according to Puckpedia. That's a 4.58% increase. McDavid is currently at 15.72%. An equivalent increase to Draisaitl's jump would put him at 20.30%. I believe a team can only go as high as 20%. If the cap increases to $97-98m during the first year of McDavid's contract (2026-27) that translates to $19.4-$19.6m for McDavid. How much of a discount is McDavid expected to give?

Edit: Corrected typo and added more info.

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

Draisaitl jumped from 11.33% of the cap to 15.91%. That's a 4.58% increase. McDavid is currently at 15.72%. An equivalent increase to Draisaitl's jump would put him at 20.30%. I believe a team can only go as high as 20%. If the cap increases to $92-93m that translates to $18.4-$18.6m for McDavid. How much of a discount is McDavid expected to give?

Draisaitl gave zero discount. So I, expect the same from his best buddy.

 

[Soundwave]

It would seem that the Oilers Cup has to be won this year, while the two big stars make a combined 21 M because next year, that number goes to 26.5M and add in 10 M for Bouchard...................then the year after those 3 will combine for probably 40M tegether and almost impossible to build the right team.
Big bucks guys...............big bucks. Not that those players don't deserve their money. It will just make the GM job tough.

It makes it a bit tougher, but it's not like the cap is static either.

By the time McDavid's extension even starts 2 years from now, the cap could be $9 million higher than it is now.

People are forecasting a 4 mill bump next summer, and then you have new Canadian TV deal that will drive up revenue.

Also again, I don't think many people outside of Oiler fans realize Draisaitl's raise is basically already priced into the Oilers salary cap. They are playing this year with $1.9 million in dead cap from Neal buy out + $3.2 mill from Brown overage + $300k bonus on Perry ... that all comes off the cap next summer.

Drai's current salary (8.5) + 1.9 mill off the cap + 3.2 mill off the cap + 300k off the cap = $13.9 million, so that covers essentially all but $100k of Draisaitl's cap hit.

They may have to bridge Bouchard, that's likely going to be the bigger internal discussion.

 

[PuckG]

Draisaitl gave zero discount. So I expect the same from his best buddy.

Draisaitl’s could have gotten 15+ million in FA. It could be argued it’s fair deal overall given the 8th year or maybe a minor discount for the Oilers.

McDavid could get a max contract if he wishes. If he ends up signing for 16-17 million, it is absolutely considered a discount.

 

[Fatass]

With Draisaitl signing this contract and McDavid's new contract in close proximity, Oilers' success in the future will be highly dependent on having successful drafts, especially in later rounds, and developing young prospects. They'll probably hope for bottom 6 players similar to Henrique who are willing to sign below market-value.

Oilers had 3 young guys, who played important minutes this playoffs, they lost this summer because of a right now cap crunch. It’s only going to get worse for the club keeping young talent, and not better.

 

[bucks_oil]

Crosby and Malkin took a few million less a year than they could have so they could be competitive.

https://x.com/i/web/status/915371961999650817

Kane & Toews took 5yr deals in 2010-11 for 6.3m/yr which is just absurd for a massive cut - The max was 11.88 that year.
Alfredsson and that 1yr of 1m for the team.
Selanne and Kariya and their contracts with Colorado.
Tavares and his contract with the Isles, was one of the biggest bargains for them.

McDavid for example was offered 750k more than what he's getting now, his discount to the team was 750k less per year (which would have made his cap hit 13.25m)

Joe Thornton always took a discount, basically each of his contracts was him taking a lot less than he could have and this was during his prime years.

Bergeron took pay cuts to bring in players, I recall a story about him taking less so the Bruins could bring in Chara. For one of the best Captain's in the game and the best 2-way player of this era, yeah he took massive pay cuts.

Oh here's a very good one - Brayden Point took a lot less and a 3yr deal to keep the Bolts competitive, he was a 90pt player making 6.75m/yr for 3yrs. For a player that in that contract put up 262pts in 267 games.

Oh and on that topic, Kucherov took an insanely big pay cut.

You are sorta all over the map here…. We were talking about RNH’s 3rd contract (ie his first UFA contract) and whether it a) represents a discount and b) is the discount significant.

I argued: a) yes and b) 750 to 1m is a significant discount.

You argued a) yes but b) not significantly.

You’ve then followed up with examples that fall in these categories:

1). Discounts that were no bigger than RNH:
* McD left 750K on the table… 750 on 12.5 vs 750+ on 5.1… RNH a deeper discount IMO
*

2) Discounts that were for very short, 1-2 year retirement contracts (often the players 4th or even 5th/6th contract. These are apples and oranges: Alfredsson, Selanne, Kariya, were all signed in their mid/late 30’s… that’s very different than an 8 year deal for prime aged players.

3) Discounts on 2nd (RFA) contracts which also can’t be compared, since the player his much less leverage anyway.
* Kane and Toews took 10.6% during RFA (and only 5 years so zero UFA years included to drive up the cap) but 14.7% during UFA when I’d argue that was market for players at their level.
* Bergeron didn’t take a discount for Chara… he took 10.8% of the cap on his RFA deal. That’s a lot for him at the time… he’d only just established himself. (Nuge took 8.7% at the equivalent stage of his career)

4) A few that we can agree were more significant discounts:
*. I’m going to give you Malkin and Crosby,… their third contracts were discounts @ 13% of the cap… but keep in mind their 2nd contracts were not… both signed for 15.3% during RFA years and that’s (still) unheard of. We are all agreeing that Drai’s UFA contract isn’t much of a discount, but it’s 15.9%… 0.6% more that Crosby/Malkins RFA contract. One could argue they’d made their money already (whereas Drai was at 11.3% during his RFA years).
* Thornton took a discount on his third contract, 12.7%… but his second contract was a whopping 17% !!! His later contracts are only discounts in retrospect, most would have expected him to decline faster than he did in his 30’s

 

[Yuke]

Easy path, could barely beat a rookie goalie and even then, had the luck of a top 6 winger being out and still facing a 3rd string rookie in net. Very easy path but still struggled.

Canucks team just cannot get enough credit for being a real good hockey team.

 

[Yuke]

Draisaitl gave zero discount. So I, expect the same from his best buddy.

Ignore, already been covered

How much does Draisaitl get on the open market? Minimum 7x 15 mill.

 

[Fatass]

How much does Draisaitl get on the open market? Minimum 7x 15 mill.

So 105 mil. Oilers gave him 114 mil.

 

[torniojaws]

Potentially looking at 40M for 3 players

Edmonton is the new Toronto?

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

At some point they will need to trade a 1st round pick to attempt to dump nurses contract. If they get rid of paying a guy who plays like a 3rd pairing defenseman as one of the top defensemen in the league, then laying their actual deserving stars a large chunk of cap is less of a problem.

Problem is trading a 1st isnt enough to get anyone to take on nurses contract yet as jt still goes through 2030. Such a bad contract. May take multiple picks but it’s what they need to do to keep cup window open. Might have to wait a few years though so someone has to absorb less years.

Yeah, it is one of the worst in the NHL. It currently is a 1st plus to get out of it because of the length.

They have to pray he picks up his play so it won’t be as much to get out of it moving forward.

Because like you alluded to, they simply can’t be paying him this amount when McDavid and Drai’s contracts hit.

 

[PuckG]

Edmonton is the new Toronto?

Odd comparison. Edmonton’s high earners all show up in the playoffs and have made at least a few runs to the Stanley Cup.

Toronto can stay on their underperforming island alone.

 

[Yuke]

So 105 mil. Oilers gave him 114 mil.

yup. and one less year

 

[Fatass]

yup. and one less year

So definitely not a discount by Draisatl. The Oilers paid more to keep him.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

So definitely not a discount by Draisatl. The Oilers paid more to keep him.

Well and an additional year but technically yes

 

[Czechboy]

Draisaitl jumped from 11.33% of the cap to 15.91%.

What cap number did you use for 2025 to get this percentage jump? I honestly didn't know the 2025 cap had been released?

In 2024, today, he makes 8.5.

In 2025, he gets his new salary. So what is the cap in 2025?

 

[Czechboy]

I see the 2026 Oilers will suck theme is still going.lol

Are there any other teams that we know so much about 2 seasons from now?