Edmonton Oilers Had No Choice To Pay Leon Draisaitl To Keep Him

Leon Draisaitl‘s Deal with Edmonton is Just Right

The week’s big news is that Leon Draisaitl is staying with the Edmonton Oilers. He signed a new eight-year extension worth $112 million. Draisaitl’s new cap hit next season will be $14 million, making him the highest-paid player based on AAV in the NHL.

The question remains: was this contract the right fit for both the player and the organization?

Elliotte Friedman joined Evanka Osmak on Sportsnet’s Sports Central to discuss the Leon Draisaitl extension with the Edmonton Oilers and explained how this is the perfect number for the Oilers and Draisaitl.

NHL News: The Edmonton Oilers Extend Leon Draisaitl for Eight Years

NHLRumors.com Transcription

Evanka Osmak: “Always great to have Elliotte Friedman, our Sportsnet NHL Insider, join us on the show. All right. Elliott, the Oilers give dry settle the highest average annual value in NHL history of $14 million. So let’s go with the Goldilocks question: is that number too much, too little, or just right?

Elliotte Friedman: “I’m going to go in a different direction. I’m going to go with D, you have to keep him. If you listen to Stan Bowman today (Tuesday), you cannot replace the player. And it’s you’re looking at, I look at it that way, if you need to sign Leon Draisaitl to win the Stanley Cup, you try to convince him to take the best number you can possibly for the team, and you make it work around him and McDavid and everybody else.

And the other thing to remember here, Evanka, is that Leon Draisatil’s salary is between 15 and 16% of the cap. That’s that’s where the top players go. If you take a look at the top players when they sign their deal, that’s the market rate, 15 to 16%, and that’s why I’m not surprised that that’s the number.

I thought earlier in the summer, the number might begin with a 13. But then about a week or so, I heard it was probably going to be around 14. And if you take a look at the going rate for star players in the NHL, like the real star franchise players and Draisaitl is 15 to 16% of the cap, is the number. So he comes in right where he deserves to be and as long as the cap goes where the league and the players believe it’s going to go, they should be okay with that number.”

Leon Draisaitl New Contract Shows A Commitment to Edmonton and Winning

As Friedman notes with the salary cap going up over the next few seasons, we can expect more and more players to take up 15 to 16 percent of the salary cap.