YOUTH BEING SERVED
McDavid, Draisaitl deals mark step into NHL’s new financial era
By the time Connor McDavid’s new eight-year $100-million US contract expires, his playoff beard should be far bushier than the peachfuzz-like facial hair he sported this spring.
From the Edmonton Oilers’ standpoint, call it an investment in the future.
By shelling out long-term deals this summer to both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (eight years, $68 million US), general manager Peter Chiarelli is putting his money into the growth of two franchise players who are barely removed from their teenage years.
In the process, Chiarelli symbolized a trend that is taking over the league: Teams locking up uber-talented kids to lengthy pacts, even if their bodies of work, however impressive to date, have been accrued over only a couple of years.
On Tuesday, as he addressed a gaggle of reporters during the BioSteel pro hockey camp in Toronto, McDavid admitted being “excited” at spending much of the next decade leading the Oilers to hopeful success alongside Draisaitl.
He should be. And so, too, should many of the budding NHL stars who are 22 and under.
With the NHL more and more becoming a young man’s league, teams are rewarding the studs of tomorrow with huge contracts in order to maintain control of their assets. As such, Chiarelli is willing to deal with the complications of having two players chew up $21 million in cap space if it means having his young foundation solidified for years to come.
“I think that’s one of the main things management wanted to do, is get that core locked up for a long time,” Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, 22, said Tuesday. “For us, as a team, it’s definitely exciting, especially knowing that two of the top players in the league are going to be there for a long time.
“It motivates every- one to continue to work and try and be a part of that for a long time.”
It’s a recipe you can expect to see being adopted more and more throughout the league. Indeed, youth will be served. It already is.
When Sidney Crosby signed his 12-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2012, he was 24 at the time and had already played under two previous NHL contracts. Teammate Evgeni Malkin was 26 and 11 months when he inked his eight-year contract, also the third of his career.
In Chicago, Patrick Kane was 25 and Jonathan Toews was 26 when they agreed to their identical eight-year, $84-million pacts with the Blackhawks in the summer of 2014. Keep in mind that Crosby, Malkin, Kane and Toews had won Stanley Cups when they snapped up their long-term deals.
For all they’ve accomplished in their young careers, McDavid and Draisaitl have not. At least not yet.
It’s a gamble Chiarelli is willing to take. And he’s not the only one. Just up the road in Calgary, Flames GM Brad Treliving was similarly proactive last year in solidifying his team’s backbone, giving Sean Monahan a seven-year deal and Johnny Gaudreau a six-year pact. Monahan was just 21 when he signed; Gaud
reau 23.
Of course, the basic difference in the Albera teams: Gaudreau and Monahan will combine for a $13.125 cap hit this season, almost $8 million less than Edmonton is on the hook for with the McDavid-Draisaitl pairing starting in 2018-19.
In any event, this much is certain: The financial bar certainly has been raised for the likes of the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, 19, Mitch Marner, 20, William Nylander, 21, and Jets sniper Patrik Laine, 19.
The moment the Oilers signings of McDavid and Draisaitl were finalized, questions immediately arose throughout Toronto and Winnipeg about how much their young hockey stars would be paid in their own next contracts.
Truth be told, they should all be sending thank-you notes to McDavid and Draisaitl, who have kept in touch via text and social media this summer.
“It’s exciting to think about playing with Leon for the next eight, nine years, however long it is,” McDavid said. “He’s a fun guy to play with. To have two young guys locked up like that and have the pieces that we do, it’s exciting.”
The bottom line is simple: On the ice, count on McDavid and Draisaitl to give opponents headaches. Off the ice, their mammoth contracts will supply NHL GMs with migraines of their own as they are forced to cough up more and more money to retain their young talent.
Welcome to the new NHL.