Edmonton Oilers ace foward Leon Draisaitl told reporters he would take time to assess his future path, but also gave a solid hint his heart is definitely with staying an Edmonton Oiler
“I’m going to give you the most boring answer here,” he said. “I’m obviously going to sit down with my agents here and talk to the Oilers, see what their plan, see what our plan is, and just go from there. Obviously I haven’t had any time to think about it. It wasn’t on my mind a lot lately. It’s just something that is going to take a little bit of time to figure out what I want, what the Oilers want, what everyone wants and then go from there and figure something out.”
Asked if he would think of signing with any other team, he said, “I mean Edmonton has the only chance to sign me so I guess they are first, yeah. We’ll see. I’ll leave it at that. Obviously I love being an Oiler more than anything. I’ll leave it at that.”
Former NHL star and ESPN hockey commentator Ray Ferraro added his own speculation today on how contract negotiations might play out between Draisaitl and the Oilers.
“I would make sure there’s no possible confusion as to my desire to sign him. I would also make sure that he understood, ‘I’m waiting for you to be OK to start talking,’” Ferraro said. “He won’t be rubbing nickels together by the time this is over.”
“The Oilers don’t need to July 1st to put the offer together, they’ve already done it,” Ferraro said. “What do people think managers are doing when the Stanley Cup is playing. They got nothing else to do. This is a boulder rolling downhill at them. You got to do something about it.”
If Draisaitl tells the Oilers he will not sign any new contract until the 2024-25 season is over, Ferraro said the Oilers must accept that.
“If he says that, what you going to do? Trade him? Not a chance?” Ferraro said. “And here’s the other thing: What if that were to happen — now we’re just being silly — and next July 1st they have a press conference and behind the curtain walk out Connor and Leon together with matching length deals. If he doesn’t want to sign right now he holds every card in the deck. No, he doesn’t. The only card the Oilers would hold is the eighth year. That’s it. And if you’ve ever played War in cards when you were a kid and you have one card left in the deck, eventually you have to go, ‘You win.’ And so that’s kind of where the player is if you’re a player like Draisaitl.”
From the Oilers final dressing room meeting today we also heard from Oilers reporter Tony Brar that in his media scrum Oiler coach Kris Knoblach that Draisaitl had rib and hand injuries: “There were games we weren’t sure he could play. But he always did.”
McDavid also played through an injury but Knoblauch refused to specify what it was.
My take
1. If Draisaitl was playing poker here, a fairly major tell would be the statement, “Obviously I love being an Oiler more than anything.”
2. Good to hear from clear-eyed Ferraro, who is married to a hockey executive, and has been one of the best two or three hockey analysts this century. He speaks well from the player point of view, and he has some solid advice hear for the Oilers, though I would add a few points. This negotiation is unlike almost any other negotiation you’ll find in the NHL. It’s not necessarily a player and his agent grinding to get every dollar they can. It’s a superstar player, one of the five best in the world, on a team with all his best friends and with an excellent shot of winning the Stanley Cup for years to come. It’s a player who on the open market could likely get a maximum 20 per cent of the salary cap if that’s his heart’s desire. But it’s a player who knows that the more money he takes, the less money his Oilers have to sign other needed ingredients for a Stanley Cup run, and less chance he’ll have of winning the Cup. Draisaitl had also already grossed more than $50 million in career earnings.
3. We don’t know what factors that Draisaitl will weigh as to when he signs, how much he signs for and how long his contract will run. But I’ll note that today Sportsnet’s Mark Spector said on X:
“Common theme here among pending UFA’s – esp the older ones: the decision is about how much do I want to stay in EDM and chase a Cup, v. going elsewhere and risk watching the Oilers win without you?”
4. Oilers forward, Connor Brown, an unrestricted free agent, told reporters he can’t see himself playing anywhere else. “This is where I want to be. My heart’s here.” TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji also quoted Mattias Janmark, also an unrestricted free agent, as saying: “At this point in your career, the only thing you think about is winning.”
5. Adam Henrique said his intentions as a UFA: “I loved coming here and having the opportunity to chase the Cup and play with the guys here. I felt like I fit in great with the group. I think for me I don’t think there’s anything on the table and we’ll just wait for this week or next week to get things sorted… I think there is a price for winning, being on a team like Edmonton that is so close… For me coming into kind of renews the passion in the game a bit… As far as dollars go, there’s an understanding that it might cost a bit. Whatever that is, it could be worth it in the end… I don’t think money is the number one thing for me in my career and where I’m at.”
And Warren Foegele: “I haven’t really thought so much about free agency… I’ve always loved my time here. I’ve created so many great friendships. I love the city. The fans have been great to me. Obviously I’d like to stay here but I also know it’s a business. They also need to want to have me too. It’s not just a one way street. But notihng but love for my time here. And I hope that everybody knows that whenever I was out there I always worked my bags off. I was always giving effort.”
And Vincent Desharnais also wants to remain in Edmonton: “Hopefully we can make it work”