The shortest off-season in Oilers franchise history now has just under 50 days until training camp begins in mid-September. With the GM job filled, the main focus in August will be contracts.

1. At the draft Jeff Jackson outlined the timeline for Leon Draisaitl’s contract extension. He said they wouldn’t talk until a GM was hired. Today marks one week that Stan Bowman has been on the job, and Bowman mentioned the first week would be about meeting and speaking with management. My understanding is no legitimate negotiations have occurred as of writing this Wednesday morning. Since Jackson spoke at the draft it seemed likely a Draisaitl extension would enter the “serious talk” phase in August. So no one should be concerned a deal hasn’t happened yet. I understand the trepidation by some fans, but it is nothing to worry about at this moment. The deal won’t be a terribly difficult negotiation. Through the first seven years of his current $8.5m AAV, Draisaitl has delivered. In those seven seasons, he ranks second in goals (297), fifth in assists (416) and second in points (713). Only Connor McDavid (834) has scored more points than Draisaitl in the past seven seasons. Draisaitl has given the Oilers incredible bang for their AAV buck during this contract. In 2018 his $8.5m AAV was tied for 10th, he was tied for 15th in 2019, tied for 24th in 2020, tied for 28th in 2021, tied for 31st in 2022, tied for 39th in 2023, tied for 43rd last season and is tied with Pierre-Luc Dubois, Filip Forsberg, Connor Hellebuyck, Bo Horvat, Mark Scheifele, Mikhail Sergachev and Mika Zibanejad for 47th this season.

2. Draisaitl has earned a significant raise. Currently Auston Matthews has the highest AAV in the NHL at $13.25m. He’s entering the second of his four-year deal. Nathan MacKinnon is also in the second year of his $12.6m deal while McDavid is entering the 7th year of his eight-year contract and ranks third with a $12.5m AAV.Matthews has the most goals in the NHL since entering the league in 2016-17. He’s an elite goal scorer. In the last five seasons Matthews leads with 257 goals, but he ranks 5th in points with 444 behind McDavid (207-403-610), Draisaitl (222-316-538), MacKinnon (180-317-497) and Artemi Panarin (149-312-461). You could ask why Toronto felt the need to pay Matthews $625K more/season than MacKinnon? They will argue he signed one year later, and the cap was higher, and while there is some truth to that, David Pastrnak signed six months after MacKinnon and six months before Matthews for $11.25m. Pastrnak has 443 points the past five seasons, one less than Matthews, but has a $2m lower AAV.If Draisaitl wants to be the highest paid player in the NHL, he has lots of stats to back it up. I doubt anyone would be shocked if he signs for $13.5m AAV. With the salary cap expected to go up another $4-$5m next season, he would be justified in asking for that. But will he? Maybe he takes $13m.

I understand how some fans are nervous. They want a deal signed today, but you will give yourself a lot of unnecessary stress if you are refreshing Oilersnation or your social media of choice hourly to see if a deal has been signed. A deal will get done. I’ve argued the best deal for Draisaitl would be signing a four-year deal, similar to Matthews, but I don’t get the sense Draisaitl will opt for that. For the most part, NHL star players are still leery of short-term deals. If they looked at the NBA, they’d see how it benefits them, but I do understand the leagues are different with salary cap rules.

Ever since the Draisaitl extension talk began, I’ve felt he will sign around $13m-$13.9m and it will be a long-term deal. From my discussions from people in the organization, I’ve heard nothing that will change my mind. Enjoy your short off-season, at this point the only surprise would be if he doesn’t get a deal done.

3. The Oilers also need to re-sign Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to contracts. Neither has arbitration rights, and with limited NHL games played and points neither has a strong case for a big extension. Not to mention the Oilers have very limited cap space. I won’t be surprised to see both deals combine for $2m AAV, maybe even less due to cap space and previous games played. Both of these players will get compensated in the future, but this is the only time the organization has an advantage in negotiating, and if I was the Oilers I’d take advantage of that, because once a player has arbitration rights, his agent uses that to their advantage as they should. It isn’t personal, it is simply business, and the Oilers hold the hammer in both of these negotiations.

4. On a side note… Matthews has been getting max money by signing a five-year deal and now a four-year deal. In his first nine seasons after his ELC he will have earned just over $111m. McDavid will be at $100m after eight years and will likely be at $115m after the first year of his new deal kicks in.Some will say, but Matthews hasn’t come close to winning. Yes, but it isn’t due to his salary. In the last seven seasons the Maple Leafs have the second most 100-point seasons among NHL teams with five. Only Boston has more with six. The Oilers are tied with Colorado and Minnesota for most in the Western Conference with three. Toronto’s lack of playoff success is more due to their lack of their top players dominating. While McDavid (1.77 pts/game), Draisaitl (1.51), MacKinnon (1.28), Mikko Rantanen (1.25) and Nikita Kucherov (1.23) produce a lot in the post-season, Mitch Marner (0.90), Matthews (0.89), and John Tavares (0.63), who all make $10.9m or more, haven’t been able to. Matthews has maximized his salary, and rightfully so as he’s an elite goal scorer, but thus far, the Maple Leafs big guns haven’t been able to shine in the playoffs often enough.

5. Evan Bouchard is also eligible for a contract extension. He’s entering the final year of his two-year, $3.9m AAV contract. Bouchard had a breakout season last year with 18 goals and 82 points. His previous best was 43 points in 2022. Bouchard is going to garner a massive raise, but I don’t think there is a rush to sign him. He’ll still be an RFA at the end of the season, and if he doesn’t have a contract extension in June he will file for arbitration, which usually is a great way to get a deal done, and it would give the Oilers even more time to negotiate. He will get a big raise, but I don’t see the urgency to re-sign him, like Draisaitl, because he’s an RFA and Draisaitl has seven years of elite production, while Bouchard has had one. I expect he will have many more great seasons of producing, but being an RFA gives the Oilers more time compared to a pending UFA.

6. I really enjoy the Olympics. It is great to see Canadians making history.
Eleanor Harvey became the first Canadian to medal in fencing when she won bronze.
Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray first men to win a medal in synchronized 10m platform diving.
Christa Deguchi the first woman to medal in Judo. She won gold.
Women’s rugby sevens won silver for the best finish by a Canadian team. They defeated #3 France in the quarterfinals, #2 Australia in the semis and battled #1 ranked New Zealand in the final. It was an outstanding performance.
And of course, Summer McIntosh. She’s already won silver in 400m freestyle and won gold, by a remarkable six seconds, in the 400 individual medley. And she still has more races to go.There will be many more great stories and performances in the final 11 days.

What is your favourite sport to watch?

7. Under contracts that won’t age well for the team…. The Flyers signing of Travis Konecny. His career high is 68 points. If you go by the $1m for every 10 points for a forward (over 50 points), then he’ll need to become an 87-point player with his new $8.75m AAV. He’s a good NHL player, but not a great player, and at $8.75m he’ll be hard pressed to live up to that deal. It is a great deal for Konecny, but not for the Flyers.

8. If you include Jack Campbell’s $1.1m cap hit, the Oilers have a total of $4.7m allocated towards goaltending this season. Washington ($1.867m), Calgary ($3.05m), Toronto ($3.26m), Colorado ($4.23m) and Utah ($4.67m) have less. At $2.6m Stuart Skinner will be one of the best value contracts among starting goalies in the NHL. He won’t come close to the franchise record for most starts in a season (73) which is held by Grant Fuhr (1988) and Cam Talbot (2017) and followed closely by Curtis Joseph and Tommy Salo (72), but Skinner might have a chance to chase the franchise single season win record. Talbot owns that with 42 wins in 2017. The shootout/OT rules give goalies more opportunities for victories now than goalies in earlier eras.Martin Brodeur (2007) and Braden Holtby have the most wins in a season in the salary cap era with 48. Brodeur made 78 starts while Holtby had 66. Skinner won’t start that many games, and the only goalie to win 40 games with less than 60 starts was Linus Ullmark in 2023, when he started 48 games and went 40-6-1. It will be a challenge, but it is something to watch this season as many expect the Oilers to be pushing to win their division and conference this season. They want home ice advantage for as many rounds as possible.

9. McDavid needs 18 points to become the 4th Oilers’ player with history with 1000 points. When he does Edmonton will join Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh as the only six franchises with four 1000-point players. Montreal and the New York Islanders have three while Colorado, San Jose, Vancouver and Washington have two. Brad Marchand is 71 points shy of 1000 points as a Bruin. Leon Draisaitl needs 150 points to become the 5th Oiler. At some point next season Boston and Edmonton (I expect Draisaitl to re-sign) will be the only two teams with five players to score 1000 points with one franchise.

10. The Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame Committee met today for their Hall of Fame potential inductees for 2024. The Hall of Fame ceremony will be on Friday, October 25th when the Pittsburgh Penguins are in town. If you could vote for one former member of the Oilers organization to be inducted, who would you nominate?

It’s time to dust off those clubs and hit the greens for the 7th Annual Oilersnation Golf Tournament presented by Oodle Noodle and Star Mechanical on August 30th, 2024! An 8am shotgun start at the Mill Woods Golf Club will kick off an unforgettable day of golf, laughs, and camaraderie with your fellow Nation Citizens. Whether you’re a scratch golfer or just out there to hack away and have a good time, this tournament is for everyone. Grab your buddies or sign up as a single, and let’s make this year’s Oilersnation Golf Tournament the best one yet. Be there or be square! Visit nationgear.ca to register today. See you on the course!