While the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid‘s representatives can’t start negotiating the franchise player’s second contract until July 1, there’s already a lot of speculation about the nature of the deal he’ll end up getting.
One theory that has floated around, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, is the notion of McDavid opting for a five-year deal.
“One of the theories is that what McDavid might do is copy some other star players who went for five-year deals, which gives the opportunity to have another big deal when he’s 25 years old,” Friedman said during Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada.
Friedman went on to list some examples: “Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos all took five years on their second contract before going big with the third one,” he said. “Crosby’s 12 years, you can’t do that anymore, and I wonder if the possibility is … that McDavid goes five years or so on his second deal, and then goes for another big one in his prime.”
Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos added that with McDavid’s teammate Leon Draisaitl an RFA in July, we might expect the two stars to end up with fairly similar deals.
“Whatever the case is, don’t look for a large disparity between the two contracts,” Kypreos said. “There’s a lot of talk about McDavid possibly getting $12, $13 million, or even the max. That’s not gonna happen, because you will not see Draisaitl signing a contract that pays him probably four or five million dollars less than McDavid.”
Kypreos suggested there might be “a difference of half a million to a million dollars” between the two contracts. “But you will not see one guy making 14 million, and the other guy making 7.5. Not in Edmonton.”
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