Introduction: Leon Draisaitl’s Upcoming UFA Status:-
Like this all throughout the year now it has been a major topic of debate over the past few months about Leon dr’s upcoming UFA status what would happen would he go to another team and there was all these rumors about him going to San Jose which let’s be honest was never going to happen I’m sorry for all the sharks fans that started to believe that but come on guys really but as we start to get closer to a deal a lot of the speculation was about what the deal would look like would it make him the highest paid player in NHL history and in terms of Av at least in the current ERA.
Contract Details: Making History with a Massive Deal:-
It does Eliot Freeman was the one that break it this morning saying that the emans Oilers and Leon Dr settle have made significant progress on a contract extension no one is commenting but it appears we are close to an 8year extension and of course in the fairy next follow-up tweet he gives us the exact details saying we will see the exact total but a is approximately 14 million which is now the highest in the NHL my first thought was wow Leon Tri setle absolutely deserves this especially considering his last contract.
Draisaitl’s Worth: A Justified Payday:-
Which we saw him sign all the way back in 2017 he had a capit of $8.5 million starting in 2018 and that’s come all the way until this season You could argue that dry saddle has been worthy of maybe $4 million more for like five years now and honestly you’d have a good point at the time back in 2017 when it was signed a lot of people saw it as a ludicrous deal for dry cdle but since then he’s made it more than worth the Oilers bargain and since then he has been underpaid for so long I would honestly say since the second year of that deal in 2019 it’s been a massive unrep pment you can see what he’s been able to do in 2018 his first year after that extension he got 70 points in 78 games and since then has not looked back 105 points 110 points 84 points in 56 games 110 points 128 points 106 points he has been a scoring machine and maybe what’s been most impressive is the playoff statistics his first playoff run in 2017 he got 16 points in 13 games and in 2020 six points 2021 five points but since then he has a monster 32 points 18 points 31 points in this last playoff run dry settle has been worth.
Injury Resilience: Playoff Performance Despite Adversity:-
So much for the Oilers and arguably their most consistent playoff performer but these numbers recently are especially impressive when you consider that back in 2022 where he got 32 points in 16 games he had an ankle injury sustained in the first round versus LA you also have pretty big injuries as well from this last playoff run too and it’s pretty crazy to see that production even with the adversity that he’s went through I don’t think there are many many players that can say they’ve done as well as dry saddle over the past few years with the injuries that they sustained still in key moments coming up clutch but that’s what dry saddle has continually been able to do for Edmonton.
Contract Negotiations: A Balanced Outcome:-
Now there was some talk even recently that dry saddle’s deal could come maybe under 14 million as Frank C mentions I think in the end the number is going to add probably now even over the last week we heard some rumors about dr’s contract potentially being under 14 million potentially with the Deferred salary that we saw in the Jarvis deal as Frank mentions I think in the end the number is going to end up probably being one that starts with 14 if not a shade under it but even though we heard a few weeks ago that it could have been be more in the $14.
Oilers’ Future: Navigating Upcoming Challenges:-
5 million range I think it was always most likely that both of these parties were going to meet in the middle somewhere and at 14 million yes is it a massive contract absolutely but you can’t say that dry CLE doesn’t deserve it this guy has been a beast through and through here’s the thing though even though Leon dry settle is now signed of this massive extension it is far from over for this Oilers management team because you have coming up after this next offseason Evan buer being an RFA and after next season in 2026 you have Conor McDavid being a UFA now we’re going to talk about how this affects the Oilers future and what could happen next for them but first let’s talk about today’s sponsor in bet us especially if you’re riding high with the dry sadle contract being signed there are a lot of bets you can make with the Oilers this next year you can go through the Pacific Division winner right now the Oilers have the best odds at plus one 20 you can also go for the conference winners and go to the western conference with the Oilers also have the best odds there at plus 400 you also got the Stanley Cup winner with them also being number one out of every team here with plus 900 the Oilers are pretty big favorites throughout the rest of this next season we’ll see how they end up doing but if you want to make your own picks go in the description down below and sign up to bet us today now getting into what this means for the Oilers future coming up here and the other free agents they need to sign you can see when it comes to the projected cap space for the next couple years is it’s pretty Rocky especially when you consider Evan Bard is an RFA after this next year they’re currently projected to have $10 million to work with for all of next season and that’s not even counting the other free agents they have now I’m not too worried about 2026 .
Managing Cap Space: The Impact of Draisaitl’s Deal:-
Considering some of those free agents are mostly just depth you have players like Jeff Skinner Conor Brown Derek Ryan Ty emberson nothing that’s going to be too crazy to worry about the big problem though is just having $10.6 million to work with a lot of that or maybe even all of it might be swallowed up by EV Bard’s next deal I think it’s a pretty good likelihood that Bard continues to build on momentum that he established this last year and he’s somebody that really exploded in a major way getting 82 points in 81 games and in the playoffs as well also dominating getting 32 points in 25 games after having a great playoff run in 2023 offensively but he’s going to be 25 when he hits free agency and he’s going to have all of the momentum on his side here with how important he is to that Oilers power play how important he is that offense really besides EOL bard is that Oilers defense for better and for worse and he’s somebody that mnon needs to keep in any way possible the main problem though is not even buar getting that money but just because of the limited options Edmonton’s going to have next off season let’s say buar gets $9 million you have $1.
6 million to work with right now if you don’t trade anybody else maybe they’re able to offload a cane contract maybe they offload the entire Procol to get rid of darn ur’s contract but as of right now they’re going to have Fair limited options to add of that bottom six and they’re going to have to rely on prospects and elc’s to fill the void which considering Edmonton’s Prospect pool is going to be risky but then of course you have the big one here in Conor McDavid and dry sadle is going to get paid board is going to get paid but Conor McDavid especially is going to get massive money and will demolish what Leon dradle gets for sure now looking at Edmonton’s cap situation you of course look ahead to 2027 which is when mcdavid’s contract would be up and you can see they have $49 million to work with which feels like a lot and it is for right now but when you factor in two years ahead of time that cap space is going to be gone pretty quickly you of course have a bunch of that cap probably a fourth of it being swallowed up by Evan Bard’s New Deal you also have Matias atal Brett kulak on the defense who are going to be ufas that year you got other ufas like Evander Kane but really the big one who I think will swallow up a lot of cap at least if he continues to improve will end up being Stuart Skinner who’s an UFA at the same time as McDavid and he’s going to get paid pretty big here we know what Skinner is capable of when he at is at his best he’s somebody over the last couple of seasons has put up some pretty good numbers for Edmonton and the playoffs has been shaky here and there but really turned it on in the second half of the playoffs last year which was a big reason why the Oilers were able to make such a push for the Stanley Cup.
The McDavid Factor: Preparing for Another Massive Contract:-
I think it’s fair to say that Skinner could get a pretty massive raise at least two times what he’s getting right now if he’s continuing to improve maybe even a little bit more than that and he’s going to be a big contract that’ll swallow up a lot of cap here for the Oilers here’s the thing I’m not really too concerned the Oilers will be able to resign Bard able to resign McDavid I think it’s going to happen especially considering McDavid I think will take a pay cut by about a few million if he’s around the $16 million range for instance I think that’s a pay cut of like $20 million McDavid deserves to get paid so much but it’s not going to happen considering he already took a pretty solid pay cut with his last deal and I think McDavid is just one of those players like Crosby before him that is going to take a decent pay cut to make sure his team is as competitive as possible and 16 million for McDavid any team would take that any day the big problem that I see coming up for Edmonton though is that even though you will be able to get these deals done at what cost it is going to make things incredibly sharp for this Oilers team and every little dollar will count even more even more than it does already even with this Oilers team that is already cap strapped already has these anchor contracts already has these big proms with Darnell nurse and Evander Kane and these bad contracts on the team every bad contract is going to matter even more when you’re paying dry sadle that much more when you’re paying Evan Bart that massive pay raise that is going to be three times what his deal is right now it is going to be really bad for oil those cab situation and especially considering their primes that they have going on here it might be these next couple of years or bust now I do think the ERS have a strong chance at getting there at least compared to some other teams out there they’re one of the five teams that I would say has some of the best chances of winning the cup over the next year of how they proved themselves in this last playoffs but at the same time it might be one of those situations like Colorado is facing right now where you might be able to win that Stanley Cup you might be able to get over that threshold but the cap is really going to come screeching at a halt and in the Oilers case it’s going to be a really big hurdle to clear but if a team like Colorado who has had pay cuts all throughout the roster especially in players like kale Mar’s cases and is a team I think has had a much better Prospect pool throughout their Prime contending years than Edmonton has even if they’re having problems the way that they’re having problems that is pretty bad news for this Oiler Steam in the future it was bound to happen it’s a good problem to have your players are so good you have to play pay them so much but I think for the Oilers depth was already an issue and over the next couple years it might be the best it ever gets even though it is still an issue as it is right now they were able to do well in this last playoffs players like Conor Brown Matias Yanmar played huge roles for this Oilers team but it’s going to be really tight here and they’re going to need every player to come up in a massive way it’s going to be fascinating though to see how the next few years.
Conclusion: A Critical Time for the Oilers:-
Oilers team turns out because it is a turn around over 5 years ago or so when they weren’t even a confirmed playoff team now they are now they’re a contender but it’s going to be really difficult to improve and get better and I think the Oilers management has some tough years coming up it’s going to be a really interesting next few seasons though but with these deals coming up things are going to get hectic but I will Le know your thoughts Down Below on what you guys think happens for the Oilers in the future or do you think they’re still able to win that Stanley Cup do you think cap heck is coming for them and what do you think happens to Bard’s deal to David’s deal how much do you see both of those guys getting.