Bridge deal for Draisaitl could be costly
If the Edmonton Oilers are thinking about offering a bridge contract to forward Leon Draisaitl, rather than a seven or eight-year deal this summer, then Tampa’s exciting winger Nikita Kucherov, 23, is the obvious benchmark.
The Lightning signed Kucherov, 10th in National Hockey League scoring, to a three-year deal at a salary-cap hit of US$4.76 million per season, albeit taking a hometown discount because of their cap situation.
Kucherov is a first-line left winger, Draisaitl, 21, a first-line right winger. He’s 27th in league scoring.
Brooks Bandits defenceman ■ Cale Makar has absolutely made the biggest leap up the draft lists from last fall until now.
NHL draft guru Craig Button plans on ranking the Alberta Junior Hockey League star fourth in a mock draft.
“Best defenceman in the draft. He’s mesmerizing, reminds me of Erik Karlsson. Great deception to his game,” said Button.
Makar has scouts drooling off his 75 points so far in Brooks. At a recent Bandits game in Spruce Grove, there were 29 pro scouts there.
“Reminds me of Duncan Keith,” said Central Scouting Bureau’s Rick Jackson.
Why are the Flames better ■ this year? Way more balance up front, with nine forwards who have scored at least 10 goals each. After riding Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan last year, and they’ve improved their back-end with Michael Stone and Matt Bartkowski over Dennis Wideman and Jyrki Jokipakka, who was traded to Ottawa in the Curtis Lazar deal. Brian Elliott is good in net, too. The Oilers missed the boat by not ■ acquiring Lazar when the Ottawa Senators were shopping him. Cal- gary got him.
He played for the Oil Kings when they won the Memorial Cup, he also played well in the world junior with Connor McDavid. He lost his way in Ottawa, but the Oilers don’t have a wealth of young forward prospects in their organization.
Chris Pronger loves McDavid’s ■ unbelievable speed, but as a Hall of Fame defenceman, he wonders if the Oilers captain might gain even more advantage if he wasn’t so fast, if he geared down a bit on the rush.
“He has to change his speeds, but that’s just experience,” said Pronger. Just some friendly advice from a great NHL defender.
Is there a team out there that will ■ take Sami Vatanen’s $4.875-million for three more years off the Anaheim Ducks’ hands? He’s their fourth-best defenceman.
The Winnipeg Jets need a No. 1 ■ veteran goalie, for sure, but what they’re also missing are some defensive blue-liners.
The Los Angeles Kings are going ■ to have to get creative to get Vegas to take Dustin Brown, who could be their captain if they select him in the expansion draft this summer. If you were an NHL GM, would you give up your first-round pick in June to take his contract?
Brown would have to agree to be exposed, too, because he has a nomove clause in his contract.