What new Leon Draisaitl contract means to the Oilers - 7 takeaways

I'll save you the actual announcement of the Leon Draisaitl signing, because it's been rehashed to death already on every website and sports-themed TV show and radio broadcast already, including us.

Thus, I will assume you've heard it already and spare you the actual news item. Instead, let's focus on what Draisaitl re-signing with the Oilers means for the landscape of hockey here in Edmonton and to a lesser extent Alberta and Canada.

1. Daryl Katz is for real as an owner

After you come up with the liquid cash to buy an NHL team and have been approved by the league and the paperwork is done, the job of an NHL team's owner is, for the most part, to fade into the background until there's an announcement to the club that's so major it requires your attention.

History has shown us time and time again, that once the initial transaction is complete, then an NHL team's owner really only has three duties to his/her name - 1) Make sure your team has the resources to compete for a Stanley Cup 2) Hire good hockey people to run your franchise and 3) Get out of their way. Darryl Katz has taken this to heart. He has the deep pockets this team needs to compete in the modern NHL. He had the vision to see what a golden touch Pat Laforge had as CEO, and thus didn't replace him when he bought the team in 2008, until 2014 when Laforge was nearing retirement and thus a succession plan was necessary. At which time Katz forked out millions of dollars to bring Hockey Canada boss Bob Nicholson into the fold (Laforge would retire in 2015 in what at the time was a sort of unofficial demotion the previous year as COO).

Then, when Nicholson wanted to step away from the spotlight, and wanting to keep his #1 star in Connor McDavid happy, Katz had the vision to hire Jeff Jackson as replacement last year (Nicholson has since stepped down to an advisory role). Katz has been such a good owner of the Oilers over the past 16 years that the Oilers, who in the late 90s were right on the cusp of moving just like the Winnipeg Jets (1.0) and Quebec Nordiques did, now as of 2023 rank as the seventh most valuable franchise in the NHL according to Forbes magazine. Further, they are in fact second (!) in the entire league in operating income - only the Maple Laffs generate more and then it's only $127 million vs. $122 million, that's it.

Think about that for a minute. The Oilers are actually one of the smallest markets in the league in terms of population to draw revenue from, and yet they produce more operating income than everywhere else except for Toronto, a city whose Metro population is over six million people, which is six times the size of Edmonton.

The city of New York has eight times the population of Edmonton, and yet the Islanders and Rangers COMBINED make less operating income than the Oilers! That's $99 million vs $122 million, in case you're wondering. They have the Canucks beat by more than double, despite the fact Vancouver has almost three times the population Edmonton does. The Panthers, the Oilers' opponents in last season's Cup Final, made a mere $6 million in operating income in 2023 - and they also went to the Cup Final that year. Chicago has three times the population Edmonton has, yet the Oilers made almost $30 million more than the Hawks did in 2023. Even Montreal, long considered Canada's hockey mecca, with a population almost double Edmonton's, made $23 million less than the Oilers did. The L.A. Kings, the highest valued of the California teams, has a population almost four times that of Edmonton, yet the Kings finished below the Oilers in 2023 operating income by $14 million - and they're the only other team in the league over $100 million besides the Oilers and Leafs.

Gone are the days of Peter Pocklington, a shyster of a businessman who literally burned all his bridges in the local business community, to the point where he was taking his Oilers profits and using the majority of them to prop up the rest of his failing business empire. This resulted in the dismantling of the 80s dynasty, because Pocklington took too much money out of the Oilers coffers and was unable to keep up with the escalating salaries of the day. Gone also are the days of the EIG, whose mandate was simply to survive until a salary cap was brought in. Gone are the days of 90s stars like Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, Curtis Joseph, Janne Niinimaa, Dave Manson and more being forced to be traded, because the Oilers couldn't afford to pay them past a certain point.

With Katz at the helm, the Oilers no longer have to worry about losing McDavid and Draisaitl, unless they want to play somewhere else. The same thing goes for the supporting cast like Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, and the rest. Now the Oilers get to enjoy what clubs like the Rangers, Stars, Avalanche, and others have enjoyed for decades now - getting star players and keeping them, ensuring a competitive team for many years to come.