Much of the hockey discourse in and around Edmonton this summer has centered around Leon Draisaitl, the star Oilers forward who is now less than one year away from being able to test the open market as an unrestricted free agent.

Daily Faceoff hockey insider Frank Seravalli, like most folks in the media, has consistently reiterated that Draisaitl isn’t likely to leave Edmonton at any point in the near future — nor is Oilers captain Connor McDavid, whose own contract will expire in 2026.

Seravalli hopped on Monday’s edition of Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer to provide his latest thoughts on Draisaitl’s contract status, including how new general manager Stan Bowman could draw from his negotiations with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in Chicago while dealing with his two superstar forwards in Edmonton.

“The sense that I’ve gotten in talking to people close to it is that the end result, the end number may end up surprising people a little bit in terms of how reasonable it ends up being,” Seravalli said, adding that he believes Draisaitl and McDavid could sign for less than $30 million per season in total.

“Now, it’s still going to be expensive, but I don’t think Leon Draisaitl is sitting here saying, ‘I need every last dime in Edmonton.’ I don’t think that’s how he’s looking at it,” Seravalli continued.

Draisaitl, 28, collected 41 goals and 106 points in 81 games with the Oilers during the 2023-24 season. The Cologne, Germany product added 10 goals and 31 points in 25 games as the Oilers made it all the way to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.

It’s safe to say Draisaitl is due a huge raise on his current $8.5 million cap hit. More than a decade ago, the Bowman-led Blackhawks established a new market for star players with their matching eight-year, $10.5 million AAV contracts for Toews and Kane, who, as Stauffer pointed out on Monday, had different points of leverage in their negotiations.

“If you look at the productivity, McDavid and Draisaitl have trounced them in terms of the offensive productivity,” Stauffer said. “The difference is they haven’t won two Stanley Cups, but, oh, wait a second here, the Blackhawks already had Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith in their organization.”

“And Duncan Keith was signed to that massive long-term deal that had such a small cap hit,” Seravalli added, referring to the 13-year, $5.538 million AAV contract Keith signed with the Blackhawks in 2009.

The Oilers originally selected Draisaitl with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. Through 719 career NHL games over parts of 10 seasons with the Oilers, the 6’2″ centre has collected 347 goals and 850 points; he’s added 41 goals and 108 points in 74 playoff contests.