McDrai both need to take less to win the cup. Something around 27% of the cap would be great for the starting year, which would be a combined ~$25 M for a presumed cap of $92.5 in Drai's first year of new contract.
They are basically saying similar things to what I've been preaching. If they want to win, they need to take discounts, full stop. If they don't, we won't win a cup.
Another one along a similar line:
Memo to Edmonton Oilers: No team has won Stanley Cup with a player earning more than $10 million. The average cup winning team in the cap era had their top 2 players making 23% of the cap, and only 2 teams winning with more than 27% going to the top 2 players, over those 19 years. 23% would be $21.275 M with the same 92.5 cap assumption. Again, McDrai need to take pretty huge discounts compared to what they *could* earn on the open market if they want to win a cup. If they take anything approaching the rumored $13 and $15 M, it will put them at 30.1%, which no team has ever won a cup with (the highest ever was 29.5%).
I've been preaching this non-stop, and people keep saying "that is managements job to figure out". Well, if the Oilers management group can figure it out, they will be the first to do so. The much vaunted Tampa, Colorado, Florida and Vegas management groups won the cups over the past 5 years with a range of 22.1-24%.