LAS VEGAS — Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl set a new bar last week when he signed the richest average annual value contract in NHL history at $14 million.
That’s nothing, of course, compared to top salaries in the NBA, NFL and MLB. But with the NHL salary cap rising after years of a flat cap, it’s a sign of things to come. One of Draisaitl’s teammates is surely about to raise the bar again.
So Connor McDavid was asked Wednesday whether he and Draisaitl felt a responsibility to help create a new landscape for the NHL’s top-end players.
“I don’t know, my agent’s sitting over there,” McDavid said Wednesday, laughing, as Judd Moldaver suddenly perked up, listening in a ballroom a table away at the Encore. “I think he’d like for me to say yes.”
“At the end of the day,” McDavid — who married his longtime girlfriend, Lauren, this summer — continued, “I’m gonna do what’s best for my family, right? I’m gonna do what’s best for my chance to win, and win many times over again.”
With a grin, McDavid added, “And that’s how I’ll answer that question.”
Draisaitl, entering the final year of his $8.5 million AAV contract, knows he’ll only temporarily be the highest-paid player in the NHL. McDavid’s next contract could best his teammate’s by $2 or $3 million, pushing toward the maximum of 20 percent a player can eat of the cap ceiling.
In two years, the cap is projected, fittingly, to be around $97 million, so theoretically, No. 97 could earn as much as $19.4 million per year. Draisaitl signed for a shade more than 15 percent of the cap.
“I don’t think I necessarily pushed my contract all the way to the limit,” Draisaitl said Wednesday. “I’d like to state that. But I am very happy with it. I’m content with it. I think compared to other sports, we probably don’t get paid what we deserve or don’t get paid what they get paid, right? But that’s the sport we’re in.
“I think each one of us, if we can bump it up and get more money into hockey and get the players some higher salaries, I think every player would probably say the same and they’d all be for it.”
One way or another, Draisaitl’s contract and the rising cap (it’s risen to $88 million this season and projected to be in the $92 million neighborhood in 2025-26) is a game-changer for superstars around the NHL.
Not only is McDavid’s contract up with the Oilers in two years, but several stars are also on the verge of expiring deals. As of this moment, at least, Mikko Rantanen and Mitch Marner are a week away from entering training camp in their contract years. Next summer, McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Artemi Panarin, Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor are blue-chippers eligible for extensions with their contracts expiring at the end of the 2025-26 season.
According to Spotrac, Draisaitl’s $14 million per year would make him the 116th highest-paid player in the NBA, the 99th highest-paid player in MLB and 88th highest-paid player in the NFL.
Would Draisaitl have re-signed in Edmonton if he didn’t think McDavid might, too? Obviously, Draisaitl is respectful enough not to speak for his friend and teammate, and McDavid isn’t about to publicly commit.
“These conversations are going to come up, but at the end of the day, he’s going to do what’s best for him,” Draisaitl said. “I did what I thought was best for me at the time. And we’ve got a lot of great people in our organization that are really smart hockey people that will put a team around us that can compete for Stanley Cup for many years to come. And we have to make sure that we continue to push the pace and lead the right way.”
There’s no doubt having Draisaitl in the fold for eight years beyond this upcoming season will be a huge influence on McDavid, though.
“A lot of things go into deciding where you’re gonna play and how long you’re gonna play there,” McDavid said. “But Leon signing his big deal would certainly, knowing that he’ll be there, go into that decision, amongst many other things.”
Regardless, Draisaitl is just excited to iron down his future.
“It’s a nice feeling to just know where I’m going to be at least for the next couple of years and be able to continue to chip away at what we’ve been creating and building over the last couple of years and just focus on truly just the hockey side over contracts and talking to my agents every other day,” Draisaitl said.
As for McDavid and Draisaitl, both players have their competitive juices back despite a short offseason following the despair of coming so close to the ultimate prize. The Oilers have won six playoff rounds the past three years, but both players said it took time to get over losing Game 7.
“I’m not sure it’s something that you ever get over,” McDavid said. “(Former Oilers general manager) Kenny Holland met with us after the season and he talked about losing in ’09 in Game 7 (to Pittsburgh) and how the disappointment sticks with him even to this day. And that’s coming from a guy who’s won Cups before (in Detroit). So I’m not sure it’s something that you ever get over really, and time kind of just moves on.”
Added Draisaitl, “I think you never really get over it until you probably end up winning it. That’s definitely something that’s going to stick with you.”
It’s been an eventful offseason for the Oilers, starting with Holland departing the organization and Stan Bowman replacing him as GM. Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson were signed as free agents and Vasily Podkolzin was acquired from Vancouver. But last month, the Blues signed youngsters Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to offer sheets. After seven days of contemplation, the Oilers opted not to match.
Asked what he made of the offseason, McDavid said, “If you asked me this question Aug. 1, I would have said, ‘Great offseason.’ Here we are Sept. 11, and we had to lose some guys along the way and that’s unfortunate, but that’s the cap system.
“Good teams have good players and it’s tough to keep them all together. And ultimately, you lose guys to the system and we lost a couple of guys and that sucks. But I think we improved in some areas, and maybe we took a step back in different areas, but I know the management team and players from within the organization are gonna step up and fill roles that need to be filled.”
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
