Leon Draisaitl Gave The Oilers A Home Town Discount, Just Not How You Think

The big news of the day yesterday for Edmonton Oilers fans was the contract extension announcement between the Oilers and Leon Draisaitl. They agreed to an 8-year extension with an AAV of $14 million. That price tag makes Draisaitl the highest paid player in the NHL. Before this deal, Austin Matthews was the highest with a cap hit of $13.25 million.

While the majority of Oilers fans are happy with the deal, there is a minority that think it is too much to pay for him knowing they have to sign McDavid to an extension next offseason. Those people were hoping to see Draisaitl take a "hometown discount" to stay with the Oilers. In my opinion, while his AVV wasn't much of a discount there is another area in which I think he did help out the Edmonton Oilers.

A Contract Has Two Numbers, Cost And Term

While the $14 million a year on average may not have been much of a deal for the Edmonton Oilers. I think that Leon Draisaitl helped the Oilers by signing a deal for 8 years of length. From Leon's perspective if he wanted to maximize his money, he could have signed a shorter deal for the same amount, then when that deal was over, he would have likely got even more money for his remaining years.

That is why I think he did the Oilers a bit of a favour here. Right now, that $14 million is a tough pill to swallow, but in 4 or 5 years $14 million is going to be a steal of a deal for Draisaitl. The cap is likely going to keep on going up, which will make his newly signed deal look better and better each year.

The only way this deal will come back and hurt the Oilers is if Draisaitl's game falls hard off a cliff, but the way he plays the game I do not expect that to happen. I mean just look at players like Malkin or Crosby, those players are elite, and no one says they are under bad contracts.

For that reason, this is why, while the $14 million AAV is quite high, I still really like this signing by the Edmonton Oilers. Being able to lock down Draisaitl for 8 more seasons after this one is something that everyone who is a fan of the Oilers is happy about.