On the Edmonton Oilers …
Sportsnet: Oilers Connor McDavid is eligible to sign a contract extention after July 1st as his entry-level deal expires after next season. Elliotte Friendman wonders if he’d sign a five-year deal and not the max of eight years, and go big deal on his third contract.
“One of the theories is that what McDavid might do is copy some other star players who went for five-year deals, which gives the opportunity to have another big deal when he’s 25 years old,” Friedman said during Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada.
Friedman mentioned the following players who did this: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos.
Nick Kypreos follows up Friedman by saying Leon Draisaitl (RFA) and McDavid could end up with similar deals and that you may see a $500,000 to $1 million difference.
“Whatever the case is, don’t look for a large disparity between the two contracts,” Kypreos said. “There’s a lot of talk about McDavid possibly getting $12, $13 million, or even the max. That’s not gonna happen, because you will not see Draisaitl signing a contract that pays him probably four or five million dollars less than McDavid.”
David Staples of the Edmonton Journal: Both Bob Stauffer and Sportsnet’s Mark Spector think that with defenseman Andrej Sekera out for six-to-nine months, the Oilers are more likely to re-sign Kris Russell.
“I think this clearly increases the probability that Kris Russell gets re-signed, would you not agree?”
“Yes, absolutely it does,” Spector said. “Sekera is one of your Top 4, and Russell is another piece of your Top 4, so it would be a real step back to lose two Top 4 defencemen off this roster.”
Jim Matheson wonders if the Oilers could re-sign Russell to a three-year deal at $3.75 million per year and a no-trade clause. Matheson added the Oilers won’t give Russell more than the $4.1 million that Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom are getting.
Jason Gregor of TSN 1260 thinks the Oilers would have re-signed Russell regardless of Sekera’s injury. Gregor says a three year deal is what they should be looking for.
Will another team on the open market be willing to go more than three years and $3.5 to $4 million?