Edmonton Oilers fans got some good news on Wednesday when the team announced the signing of Leon Draisaitl to an eight-year extension worth $68 million.
For those doing the math, that means more than one quarter of the team’s cap will be spent on Draisaitl ($8.5-million AAV) and Connor McDavid ($12.5-million AAV) once the 2018-19 season rolls around and McDavid starts in on the eight-year, $100-million deal he signed back on July 5.
“These two contracts, they’re the biggest pillars of our organization,” Chiarelli said during an appearance on Prime Time Sports on Wednesday. (See the full interview at the top of this post.)
It’s money well spent when you look at each player’s production so far in their respective careers: Draisaitl, 21, tallied 29 goals and 48 assists for 77 points in 82 games this past season and led Edmonton in the playoffs while his 20-year-old captain claimed both the league’s scoring title (30G, 70A, 100pts) and regular season MVP honours.
Now, Edmonton goes from being a team preparing to take on big contracts to one focused on balancing the cheque books in the years to come now that its two biggest players have signed on long-term.
“I call it a challenge,” said Chiarelli. “Certainly in doing the math and all the roster roll-outs leading up until this year, you look at all different situations and you look at potential numbers that these guys are going to reach and you get prepared for it. It’s a challenge for us to backfill and maintain talent in addition to these two players, and frankly, it was a point of discussion with both of them in their negotiations and they both acknowledged it in some shape or form.”
“Simply put, it’s the reality of the NHL now—reality when you have two players of this calibre, that you may have to build your team a little differently,” he said. (Pittsburgh and Chicago are two other teams built this way.) “We’re ready to accept the challenge and we have the means to backfill in terms of younger talent—not necessarily right away, but we have to look at it that way… but we feel comfortable with it.”
Going forward, Chiarelli explained that it’s the level of players that fall into the cap bracket of $5- to $7-million per year that may bring the big challenge for teams with such a top-heavy payroll like Edmonton soon will.
“You have to be a little more diligent on maybe cheaper players,” Chiarelli said, pointing out the rising cost of a group of players that used to earn an AAV closer to $3- $4-million. “You have to be careful.”
“And those players, when they’re paid that past the apex of their career, sometimes you can get caught,” he explained. “Unfortunately the way that the system is, that may be a victim—that level of player. But they certainly still have value, you just have to be careful.”
[relatedlinks]
