The Edmonton Oilers and star forward Leon Draisaitl have signed an eight-year, $68 million contract, the team announced Wednesday. The deal runs through the 2024-25 season with an annual cap hit of $8.5 million.
Leon Draisaitl signs 8-year, $68 million contract with Oilers
Draisaitl gets an $8.5 million annual cap hit on his big new extension.
Photo by Codie McLachlan/Getty Images
Draisaitl, 21, was one of the top restricted free agents this offseason. Talks had dragged out after second contracts for top young stars like Connor McDavid, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Ryan Johansen elevated the market for a player like Draisaitl. Now he’s got the contract to prove it with a cap hit that’s among the highest in the league.
Last season with the Oilers, Draisaitl broke out with 29 goals and 48 points in 82 games. He finished eighth in the NHL with 77 points, just ahead of top scorers like Vladimir Tarasenko and Artemi Panarin.
Now the Oilers have locked up one of the best, if not the best, young duos in the NHL. McDavid signed an eight-year, $100 million extension this summer that goes into effective in 2018-19, when he’ll become the league’s highest-paid player. Draisaitl’s deal goes into effect now, so it’ll expire a year earlier.
For seven years, the Oilers will have their two best players signed at a combined cap hit of $21 million. That may seem high, but the Blackhawks will be paying out the exact same combined cap hit to star forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews for the next six seasons. So it’s not unprecedented for a team to spend this much on two players, especially when they’re of such a high caliber.
Edmonton now has over $60 million tied up in 13 players for the 2018-19 season, when both McDavid and Draisaitl will be on their new deals, per Cap Friendly.
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