Leon Draisaitl is skating into the future.
The Edmonton Oilers star center is now the NHL’s highest-paid player after signing an eight-year contract extension worth $112 million. The average annual value of $14 million is the highest in NHL history and second overall richest contract ever behind Alex Ovechkin’s $124 million deal in 2008.
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The Oilers wanted to lock up the 28-year-old after the franchise came one victory away from winning the Stanley Cup in June. The historic contract, which points to the health and trajectory of the league, means Draisaitl will incur the highest salary cap hit in NHL history but gives the rest of the league a sense of what chips will be available at future negotiating tables. The current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire after the 2025-2026 season.
“We’re peering into the future,” Mike Liut, Draisaitl’s agent and the managing director of Octagon Hockey, said in an interview. “The historic nature of this will be a little bit like the NBA’s moment when the new media contracts took the salary cap up considerably. … There isn’t this influx of capital, but the salary cap has been artificially suppressed, and it’s going to spring forward over the next two years.”
The NHL salary cap next season will be $88 million, but that number should exceed $100 million in two years thanks to the pandemic recovery, with hockey-related revenue now surpassing the cap. It’s been quite the turnaround for the NHL, which has topped an all-time high of $6 billion in large part thanks to new media deals, rising stars, jersey sponsors, new sponsorship agreements and higher attendance. The current CBA, though, is still in its MOU phase due to uncertainty brought on by the pandemic and hasn’t quite caught up to today’s revenues. Executives and agents anticipate the cap will jump when the new CBA is struck.
It’s expected to be a solid pop based on the hockey-related revenues from the previous two seasons. “That will be our NBA moment or salary cap jump,” said Luit, a former NHL All-Star goaltender who helped put together the seventh contract in league history worth at least $100 million.
Draisaitl, who has brand deals with Puma, Sports Interactive, Warrior and others, will enter his 11th season with the Oilers this upcoming campaign, where he will play on the final year of his current contract ($8.5 million AAV). The German alternate captain returns to Edmonton, a small-market…