[Signing] Oilers sign Draisaitl (8 yrs, $8.5 mil AAV)

[topfiverecords]

Can't wait till the trade of Ryan Nothing-Happens for nothing happens.

[Yrebmi]

Suggestion no longer needed

[Cali Panthers Fan]

$8.5 x 8. wow.

Listen, he's a very good player, I'm not trying to take anything away from him......but my god that's a lot of money for a lot of term. I imagine he'll be successful for quite a few years, but if he ever drops below 60 points again, he's going to have to hide in that city. That's a pretty crazy contract for a guy coming off his ELC. You'd think that they would have a little bargaining power over him to take a bit of a discount, but this is full value and then some extra for that kind of term. He'll be 29 when the contract of his life is over.

I love the fact that $8+ x 8 is now the new $6 x 6. Keep on doing what you're doing Edmonton.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by dino7c

McDavid needs to be over 100 points and Drai needs to be 80+ to even consider them decent contracts let alone bargains

that is pressure

It certainly is pressure. But every other team in the league would be willing to pay McDavid more than what he signed for, so atleast by that measure it's a bargain. I don't think the Draisatl will get lambasted around the league, but it does seem a little rich.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

It certainly is pressure. But every other team in the league would be willing to pay McDavid more than what he signed for, so atleast by that measure it's a bargain. I don't think the Draisatl will get lambasted around the league, but it does seem a little rich.

Lamb-basted.

Fixed that for you.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

It certainly is pressure. But every other team in the league would be willing to pay McDavid more than what he signed for, so atleast by that measure it's a bargain. I don't think the Draisatl will get lambasted around the league, but it does seem a little rich.

McDavid got fair value but I wouldn't say bargain...he will be the highest paid player in the NHL

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It's kind of crazy to see how much leverage young players with one good season and no arbitration rights can have in the NHL.

Compare to Major League Baseball's Mookie Betts who, in the last year of his entry level contract was an all-star, finished second in MVP voting, second in WAR, won a gold glove and a silver slugger. And all he managed was a one-year, $950,000 contract for 2017. He will get paid eventually, but not yet.

The implementation of a salary cap means players get paid sooner and reach UFA sooner.

In baseball, the best players are getting $30M per season.

[FBI]

Can you imagine if Bennett turns out to be better than Draisaitl? Oh the joy we would have in the E=NG thread.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dino7c

McDavid got fair value but I wouldn't say bargain...he will be the highest paid player in the NHL

It's a bargain in the sense that if he demanded $15M he likely could (and would) have gotten it.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by dino7c

$1000 says JG has more points per $

That is a very safe bet just based on each player's production from last year—a year in which Gaudreau missed camp, had a bad start, broke his hand, missed time with an injury, and in which Draisaitl recorded career highs across the board, played in every game, and benefited from the lion's share of his ice time on the wing of one of the best players in the world.

[Realistic]

This is going to be awesome, I don't think Coiler fans have a clue that there is a salary cap or what it means!

[Gaudfather]

Oilers organization likely planted that Draisaitl $10MM demand yesterday to make an announcement of $8.5MM seem like a relative bargain.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by browna

Also, on the subject of pressure, RNH is now automatically to blame for every loss, mis-step, or regression that the Oilers have over last year, from October onwards. As per usual, floated out by the media up there, then the fans take it and fan the embers.

Pronger would be wise to reach out and make sure the Nuge doesn't have any furniture that overzealous fans can smash.

The pressure is firmly on Draisaitl now. If he hits an extended slump or shows his inconsistencies the pitchforks will come out.

[DazzlinDino]

If there has been one thing that has been consistent with the oilers it's that they seem to give their first round picks raises without requiring them to become established NHL players. For the last ten years we have seen them over pay players while the team continued to lose season after season. This is just another big contract that fits into the oilers way of doing things. This has to make it hard for GM's around the league when they are looking for comparable for young players that first need to establish themselves.

[Oil Stain]

I was hoping for $7.5 million per season, and thinking it would come in around $8 million.

$8.5 seems like an overpay based on Tarasenko's contract.

It's funny that last off season everyone would likely have been complaining if the Oilers had signed Draisaitl long term at $6 million.

If Draisaitl can repeat his performance the Oilers will be fine.

If he slides the Oilers are going to have trouble building a contender.

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by DazzlinDino

This is just another big contract that fits into the oilers way of doing things.

Nah. The Oilers actually would have been better off signing Draisaitl before he got to free agency like they did with RNH, Hall, and Eberle.

They gave Draisaitl a show me year and are paying the price for doing things differently.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

It certainly is pressure. But every other team in the league would be willing to pay McDavid more than what he signed for, so atleast by that measure it's a bargain. I don't think the Draisatl will get lambasted around the league, but it does seem a little rich.

This word gets thrown around far too often. I see it applied to any player who comes in even just a fraction under his perceived market value, but quite frankly that is disingenuous.

In this instance I don't believe that Connor McDavid's contract can be considered a bargain by any metric, and the reason is that it is the most expensive individual hockey contract in the world. It cannot be a bargain until at least the day that another player is paid +$100 m over an eight year term because at this point his deal is without adequate comparison.

To put it another way, Darryl Katz's home is easily the most valuable piece of real estate in the Edmonton region at around $13 m. If Milan Lucic buys Katz's house for $12 m he is getting it at a slight reduction of it's perceived value, but he is still paying at least $3 m more for his cool new pad than for any other private residence North of Rockyview. This is not a bargain. It may represent modest savings, but that is not the same thing.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Scrub (2)-McDavid (12.5)-Draisaitl (8.5) = 23M

Gaudreau (6.75)-Monahan (6.375)-Star (9.875) = 23M


Assuming that the lines aren't split up by 2019, I think there's a legitimate argument to be made on which one of those lines I would take depending on the unknown players. Of course I don't really see the Flames salary structure lending to that type of line, but at nearly 10M the Flames could start looking at potential (but extremely unlikely) UFAs like Seguin, Kucherov, Pavelski, Couture, Simmonds, Wheeler or Skinner while the Oilers would be looking at 48 year old Jagr.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I'd be looking forward to the Oiler apogist spinning this one ...

6 weeks ago: 8x7 a fair deal

Uh.. That was 6 weeks ago! Ever heard of inflation?

[/OilerFanLogic]

[united]

Hilarious overpay by the Oilers. His performance without the McDavid blanket is nothing exceptional. He has no business getting over $7 million/year.

But, in the end him and McDavid came in about where I thought they would combined. McDavid unfortunately signed for less than he's worth when he could have held the Oilers ransom for the maximum. So McDavid pretty much bank-rolled the overpay.