On Tuesday, Leon Draisaitl signed the biggest (in terms of AAV) contract in NHL salary cap history, an eight-year, $112M deal at $14M per year. This breaks the previous AAV record of $13.25M signed by Auston Matthews last summer.
This signing prevents a potential season-long distraction, where the team should be focused on capturing it’s first Stanley Cup since 1990, and is welcome news for Edmonton Oilers fans.
But of course, at such a high amount, beyond the relief of Draisaitl re-upping with the club, how do Oilers fans feel about the contract dollars? We asked you that in this week’s SC.
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The right amount
The majority of you (59.5%) felt the $14M AAV was in the goldilocks zone of about right. While it is the highest raw amount, one thing that needs to be kept in mind in a salary cap world is how much of the cap is actually taken up by contract.
At $14M, that would be 15.91% of the $88M cap. However, the contract doesn’t kick in until next year, where the estimated salary cap is $92M, making Draisaitl’s deal 15.22%.
Here are the highest cap percentages for contract starts (not when they were signed but when they actually kicked in. Data from PuckPedia):
- Brad Richards: 17.73%
- Alex Ovechkin: 16.82%
- Connor McDavid: 15.72%
- Chris Pronger: 15.38%
- Sidney Crosby: 15.34%
- Evgeni Malkin: 15.32%
- Nathan MacKinnon: 15.09%
- Auston Matthews: 15.06%
Granted, the Richards and Pronger contracts were from the early days of the salary cap and so there can be an argument that at that time GMs were still sorting out roster building.
In any event, at 15.22% Draisaitl’s contract does appear to fit in with the above, being the third lowest. However, it is higher than both MacKinnon and Matthews, who each signed in the last two years and became the highest paid players each time. But it’s not by such a substantial amount to be unreasonable, especially when you consider that Draisaitl has more 100-point seasons than either of them (five versus two for each of them), more 50-goal seasons (three against two for Matthews and one for MacKinnon), has outscored each of them for five of the last six seasons, and is second in the league in goals and points over those six seasons.
Just happy he signed
33.1% don’t care about the amount, they are just happy that Draisaitl re-signed.
This makes sense. As mentioned above, an unsigned Draisaitl going into the season would cause much drama, especially since it was reported that Draisaitl would not negotiate during the season. That would leave the Oilers with a difficult choice of whether to bank on him re-signing or not risk him walking for nothing and trading him, essentially closing the door on a Stanley Cup this year.
The other reason fans are happy he signed at a max length is that it would appear to signal that Connor McDavid will also be re-signing when he is able to do so next summer. One has to think that the two would have talked about it before Draisaitl committed long term to the team. That in itself makes the contract worth it, as McDavid is the undisputed best player in the world and therefore regardless of cap hit gives you the best chance to be a contender.
Not an overpay
Only 5.4% thought the contract was an overpay, which isn’t unexpected when you consider Draisaitl is not the best player in the league, and not even on his team. It also is likely because there was talk of Draisaitl taking less money to stay with the Oilers to help the team build around the core.
However, there are two other players who are not the best players in the league that are making more than the best player, so it’s not necessarily the strongest argument. As the cap goes up, the salaries go up, and again, by the cap hit it isn’t unreasonable.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Draisaitl will be the highest paid player for only one year. McDavid will take that throne the year after, and with upcoming UFAs like Mikko Rantanen, Nikita Kucherov, Cale Makar, and Auston Matthews again, not to mention RFA Connor Bedard, it isn’t unconceivable that Draisaitl could be as low as the fifth highest contract by the halfway mark of his deal.
Not enough?
2%, or three people, thought Draisaitl should or could have made more. I assume these three people are Leon Draisaitl, his fiancé, and his agent.
While it is true that as probably the biggest unrestricted free agent in a long time, if not ever, there would be many teams clamouring for his services, how much more are we talking? I guess it certainly is possible a desperate team would throw $15M at him, but in that case is it a team he would sign for in terms of competitiveness? Sure you can argue that only an extra $1M shouldn’t make that much of a difference, but when that team doesn’t have a Connor McDavid to go along with it then it probably isn’t as competitive.
One interesting thing to note is that if Draisaitl signed with another team as a free agent, they could only sign him for seven, not eight years. As a result, in order to earn $112M over the life of the deal, his AAV would actually have to be $16M, which seems even more unlikely.
All in all, it is almost unanimous that Oilers fans are happy with the contract, with 94.6% of people saying the contract is the right amount, an underpay, or just happy with him being re-signed. That kind of approval is almost unheard of amongst hockey fans, and I suspect the only contract that will be met with even more approval will be the one that McDavid (hopefully) signs next summer.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
