This coming offseason there are two major contracts that Stan Bowman and the Oilers need to prioritize. Those two contracts are Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard. While the McDavid contract will be a pretty simple process, they ask Connor what he wants, and they give it to him. The Bouchard one though on the other hand was a bit more unclear till a recent signing set a benchmark for it.
Earlier this week the Washington Capitals re-signed Jakob Chychrun to an 8-year deal carrying a $9 million AAV. Chychrun while having a good year this season, I would still rank him as a less effective defenseman than Bouchard. This would mean that when the Oilers are negotiating with Bouchard, they are going to sign a contract that is more than the $9 million that Chychrun got in his recent deal.
đź‘Ź CHYCHY'S LOCKED IN đź‘Ź
— x - Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 25, 2025
The Washington Capitals have re-signed defenseman Jakob Chychrun to an eight-year, $72 million contract extension. Chychrun’s contract will carry an average annual value of $9 million.#ALLCAPS | @Shift4
As mentioned above, this season Chychrun is having his best season yet putting up 44 points (18G, 26A) so far this season even with him having his best season he still has less points than Evan Bouchard who currently has 55 points (13G, 42A). While he does have 2 more goals that does not counter the 16 more assists that Bouchard has.
Big Money Could Be Coming Bouchard's Way
While the Chychrun deal is a good starting point for their negotiations, it is just that, a starting point. With Bouchard being young and putting up better numbers that Chychrun I would expect Bouch to be getting as much as $1.5 million/year more than Chychrun. A price tag like that could really cripple an Oilers team who is already close to the cap as it is.
According to PuckPedia the Edmonton Oilers are projected to have $14ish million in cap space. This does not include a Bouchard contract, as well as a couple of depth forwards. If Bouch does end up getting around $10 million that only leaves $4 million to sign the depth players, which is less than ideal for filling in those spots.
For the Oilers though this is a good problem to have. If you have to pay players quite a bit of money that means that you have skilled players worth paying that much. If the Oilers want to stay in this Stanely Cup window they are currently in they are going to have to bite the bullet on a couple of big money contract in order to keep your star players happy and in Edmonton.