The Edmonton Oilers took care of one of the biggest pieces of work in franchise history Tuesday, officially signing superstar centre Leon Draisaitl to an eight-year, $112-million contract extension.
It means he is set to be an Oiler for life, and it’s a great indication of the health of the franchise, and market, but it also indicates that Connor McDavid will all but certainly put pen to paper next summer on a massive extension of his own.
Salary cap resource site PuckPedia got the details of Draisaitl’s contract that will see him earn an AAV of $14 million, in a bonus-heavy contract. His deal will see him earn a $1 million salary with a full no-movement clause across the life of the deal, according to PuckPedia, with $15.5 million in bonus’ in each of the first three years. The fourth year will see him get a $13 million signing bonus, the fifth an $11.5 million bonus with $11 million bonuses in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth years of the deal, PuckPedia highlighted.
While the Carolina Hurricanes signed Seth Jarvis to a deal that included deferred money, PuckPedia reported that Draisaitl’s deal carries none. There was some speculation, or theorization, of Draisaitl potentially doing so to limit his cap hit with the team over the length of his deal, but none of it came to fruition.
No matter how you cut it, this deal is a significant win for the Oilers, and worth every single penny over its entire length. Draisaitl has played at a heavy discount on the $8.5 million AAV deal he signed in 2017, far and away exceeding the value of that contract over its life.
Even if you wanted to say his deal was an overpay of around $1 million, as The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn’s model does, getting Draisaitl locked up long-term means McDavid will do the same. The Edmonton Oilers will remain one of the league’s top competitors.
Instead of Edmonton’s Stanley Cup window shrinking, had the unthinkable happened and Draisaitl left town, the window now stays wide open. All this, mind you, at a time when the NHL’s salary cap begins to rise on levels that haven’t been seen in the league’s cap era, further opening the door for the Oilers to add players to the team.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
