Teams that are likely going to go after Draisaitl in 2026:
Toronto (Tavares and Marner are off the books, Tavares likely signs a cheap deal)
Dallas - Benn is off the books, would imagine Seguin is bought out down the road
Colorado - If they cannot work something out with Rantanen
Washington - Backstrom's contract expires the same year. My guess is Washington throws a ton of money at Draisaitl to play with Ovi for a couple of years.
And that's not even accounting for teams that are likely trying to get out of a rebuild and wanting to contend. Have to think Chicago would overpay for Draisaitl's services for 7 years so he could feed it to Bedard all day long. San Jose likely has more space and wants Draisaitl playing with Smith, Anaheim with Zegras/Carlsson/McTavish, etc. Philly likely has Michkov in the USA by then, they likely need a center.
TLDR: Greener pastures than Edmonton. And when Draisaitl leaves, McDavid imo will have a very hard time staying in Edmonton unless he is offered a ridiculous amount of money from Edmonton, which hinders everything.
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