McDavid gets $100M, eight-year deal
Oilers captain, 20, becomes NHL’s highest-paid player.
The Edmonton Oilers said Wednesday that captain Connor McDavid agreed to an eight-year, $100 million extension.
That makes the 20-yearold league MVP the highest-paid player in the NHL on an annual basis ($12.5 million per season), but it’s about $750,000 a year less than what reports last week figured he would get.
“It easily could have been a lot higher in value and shorter in term,” Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli said.
McDavid’s extension kicks in after he finishes the final year of his entry-level deal next season. If the NHL’s salary cap stays at its current level of $75 million, McDavid’s salary alone would take up 16.6 percent of the Oilers’ cap.
McDavid led the NHL in scoring with 100 points last season, en route to winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
NHL free agents picking destinations: Kevin Shattenkirk could have gotten more money but took less to join the Rangers.
Joe Thornton could have gotten a multiyear deal from someone but wanted to stay with the Sharks.
Brian Campbell and Patrick Sharp could have gotten more money the past two summers but took the Chicago discount to return to the Blackhawks.
The NHL is becoming more like the NBA, with top players forgoing longer, big-money contracts to pick their preferred destination, a trend that has added a new wrinkle to free agency.
“It’s their opportunity to go to where they want to go and sometimes you might have to take a little bit less money to go there,” Stars GM Jim Nill said. “Do you want to go to a good team? Is it a city you want to go to? Is it where your family wants to be? ... It’s players finding the right fit for where they want to be and having the money that they can live with.”
Shattenkirk, of New Rochelle, N.Y., turned down offers of seven years and more than $30 million to sign with the Rangers for $26.6 million over four years. The defenseman, 28, felt like it may be his only opportunity to “fulfill a lifelong dream.”
“No matter where you go you’re trying to win your team a Stanley Cup,” Shattenkirk said. “There’s no better place to try to do it for me than in New York.”
Rangers GM Jeff Gorton praised Shattenkirk for leaving money and years on the table, and even New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero — who made a strong push to sign the top free agent available — gave him credit for signing in New York because it was “where he wanted to be.”
The NHL’s hard salary cap and players re-signing to so many long-term deals means superteams like in the NBA won’t happen. But where and who matters more and more to hockey players than simply how much and for how long.