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One of the best of Leon Draisaitl’s 2023-24 season (2:10)
Check out a few of Leon Draisaitl’s greatest objectives as he indicators an 8-year extension with the Oilers. (2:10)
Greg Wyshynski, ESPNSep 3, 2024, 10:54 AM ET
Leon Draisaitl signed a blockbuster eight-year extension with the Edmonton Oilers that offers the star heart the very best common annual contract worth within the wage cap period.
Draisaitl, 28, agreed to a deal that begins within the 2025-26 season and carries a mean annual worth of $14 million for a complete of $112 million. He is coming into the ultimate season of an eight-year contract signed in 2017 that carries an $8.5 million cap hit.
The present highest NHL cap hit belongs to Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews ($13.25 million), who signed his deal in August 2023.
“For me, it was all the time the Oilers,” Draisaitl mentioned Tuesday. “Clearly we’ve not gotten the job completed but, which makes it to me much more particular. We will do that collectively. We’re all pulling on the identical rope right here. I am excited to be part of it and excited to maintain chipping away on the final objective, and everyone knows what that’s.” Draisaitl has 850 factors in 719 video games throughout his 10 NHL seasons — the third-highest whole in that span behind Oilers teammate Connor McDavid (982) and Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov (855). Draisaitl led the NHL in scoring in 2019-20 and gained the Hart Trophy as league MVP that season.
His 347 profession objectives are the fourth most of any participant in that span.
“Gamers like Leon are particular: There’s not many individuals on this planet that may play hockey like he does,” mentioned common supervisor Stan Bowman, who was employed in late July. “There is no means we might ever substitute what Leon brings to the desk. He is an enormous a part of our workforce, he has been and he’ll proceed to be.”
It is the primary important transfer for Bowman, who changed Ken Holland within the offseason. The Oilers misplaced to the Florida Panthers in Recreation 7 of the Stanley Cup Remaining in June.
The Oilers have two extra important contract choices on the horizon: Standout defenseman Evan Bouchard, 24, is a restricted free agent after the 2024-25 season; and McDavid is an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season, with two extra seasons left at $12.5 million AAV.
Data from the Related Press was used on this report.
Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL author.
