Another factor, and perhaps the most important one, is where would he be willing to sign? Multiple teams would have room to fit him in, but would Draisaitl want to sign in Toronto? I have my doubts.
NYR? Definitely a place he'd likely want to go. Everyone does.
LA? His fiancé is an actress. Likely to be very appealing.
Florida? The just won the cup and have low taxes. A possibility.
I think most Canadian teams other than the Oilers are off his list. Very few are close to winning or have media/fans who don't make players uncomfortable. Drai puts up with the media here but doesn't like them.
Odds are the Oilers sign him anyway. Whatever the number they'll say yes and just make room elsewhere.
If the oilers sign him and #97 along with Bouchard while having Nurse that would likely eat up close to 50 million in cap. For how many years have people mocked the leafs for 40 million on the core four? This would essentially be the same assuming the cap gets to 100 million.
No team has won a cup with even two 10 million dollar contracts and having four players eating half your cap is worse.
If the oilers don't win a cup this year it will only get harder and that would be what 6 years of playoffs with this core?
Then again they brought in a GM who loves spending cap space so maybe it happens?
Personally I think you take Drai away from #97 and his point totals drop, a lot. I mean the pp alone he's constantly left open because teams double up #97.
Then you have the possible package you could potentially get a 1D and a lesser 2c + etc.
I get they made the finals but they were also 1 loss away from bowing out in the 2nd round and have had 5 attempts with these two and every year the excuse has been depth or goaltending. If they run back with those four taking up more than half the cap and a very shallow prospect pool, how are things any different?
