Today’s Official Announcement: Recently, the sensational star of the Edmonton Oilers has confirmed that he wants to leave after turning down a contract offer.
Next summer marks the expiration of Leon Draisaitl’s contract, while the summer after that marks the expiration of Connor McDavid’s.
In Edmonton hockey discourse, there are two main questions: Can the Edmonton Oilers keep them? And can they sign Stanley Cup-friendly contracts to keep them?
The two players are free to sign with any other NHL city, subject to a maximum term of seven years and a maximum payout of twenty percent of the salary limit, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association. If they choose not to sign in Edmonton.
I’ll make the immediate suggestion that both players will be able to obtain that 20% bid from another team if money is their primary concern. Though giving any two players 40% of the cap would probably end any team’s hopes of winning the Stanley Cup, Edmonton could be able to provide each player that 20% deal for an eight-year period.
What’s my point?
Edmonton isn’t holding a clear advantage in these contract talks. McDavid and Draisaitl are free to act as they choose. The two players will be the complete masters of their own destiny and the commanders of their own ships after 11 seasons in Edmonton.
They have a legally granted right, and I don’t see why anyone should deny them that, do you agree?
The allure of contracts favorable to the Stanley Cup
The dilemma facing the Oilers is that, should they give Draisaitl and McDavid the full twenty percent of their salary, as both players arguably deserve at this stage of their careers, the Oilers will not be able to keep other elite players in the future. These players include young players like Evan Bouchard, Philip Broberg, Stuart Skinner, and Dylan Holloway, who require new contracts, as well as veterans like Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, and Brett Kulak, should they be considered crucial to Edmonton’s hopes of winning the Stanley Cup.
