Oilers and Evan Bouchard reportedly unlikely to discuss contract extension this summer
By Cam Lewis
3 days agoThere are two high-profile Edmonton Oilers who are eligible to sign contract extensions with the club this summer.
The one that everyone has been talking about is Leon Draisaitl, who’s set to enter the final season of the eight-year, $68 million contract that he signed with the Oilers back in 2017 when his entry-level deal expired.
Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson said back in June that Draisaitl likely won’t sign a long-term contract until the team has hired a general manager, but getting the former Hart Trophy winner signed this summer is a priority.
“I don’t feel the pressure of any date to do this. [Draisaitl] has another year on his contract, he likes playing in Edmonton, he likes this team, he likes the coach, the coaches. We need to sit down and talk about not only money but philosophically, where the team is going to go and what we’re trying to do. I mentioned earlier he needs to know who the new GM is before we really do that because he’s not going to commit long term and not know who the guy that is going to be with him day-to-day and on the planes and the hotels on the road and all that sort of stuff, and who’s managing the team day-to-day.I feel confident that we’ll sit down as soon as we can — obviously, it’s of critical importance to us — and if we don’t have something done by July 15th, we’ll keep working on it. We’ve got a year to work on it. We want to keep this group together, and it’s a priority to do that with Leon. I don’t feel like a date here the next two, three days, July 1st or anything like that, where we have to do something, or we’re putting ourselves in peril. I just don’t feel like that.”
There’s also Evan Bouchard, who inked a two-year bridge contract last summer when he reached the end of his entry-level deal. The 10th overall pick from the 2018 NHL Draft will be a restricted free agent following the 2024-25 season, but don’t expect a new contract to be signed any time soon.
According to Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic, it’s unlikely the Oilers are Bouchard are going to discuss an extension this off-season.
Bouchard made his NHL debut in his post-draft season in 2018-19 and was sent back to Major Junior after seven games with the Oilers. He spent the entire 2019-20 season with the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL and appeared in 14 games with the Oilers during the shortened 2021 season.
The 2021-22 season was Bouchard’s first full-time year in the NHL and he scored 43 points over 81 games playing alongside veteran Duncan Keith. He scored 40 points over 82 games in 2022-23 and 19 of those points came in the final 21 games of the season after Tyson Barrie was traded for Mattias Ekholm and Bouchard was moved to the top power-play unit.
Since that trade, Bouchard has flourished as a top-pairing defenceman. He finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting for the league’s top defenceman in 2023-24 after scoring 82 points in 81 games and he followed that up with 32 points in 25 games in the playoffs. Bouchard logged an average of 23 minutes per game for the Oilers last season and had an on-ice goal differential of 94-to-58.
There’s no doubt that the Oilers would like to get Bouchard signed long-term, but there’s little motivation for the player to lock in at this stage. He’ll be a restricted free agent next summer, this time with the ability to go to arbitration. There’ll also be more clarity on the future of the salary cap and what a Norris Trophy-calibre defenceman should be able to command in terms of salary one year from now.
Rasmus Dahlin, who was the first overall pick in Bouchard’s draft year, signed an eight-year, $88 million contract last October that’ll begin with the 2024-25 season. If Bouchard can improve on the 82 points that he scored last season, the $11 million annually that Dahlin signed for would probably be the floor of his agent’s ask on a long-term contract.
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