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This in from NHL insider Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff, his prediction that the Edmonton Oilers will sign up Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard, paying $40 million per year for all.
Oilers insider Bob Stauffer added the Draisaitl camp is looking to sign long-term, not a shorter deal like Auston Matthews signed in Toronto.
Said Seravalli on Stauffer’s Oilers Now: “The Oilers need to make hay right now because they’ve got McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard only adding up to $25 million. The next iteration of this when everyone is locked up, because to me it’s when but not if…”
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Stauffer interjected: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you’re saying the Oilers are going to get all three of those guys signed.”
Seravalli: “I believe the Oilers have already begun discussions with Draisaitl’s camp.”
Stauffer: “I will tell you this: It’s my belief that the Draisaitl camp will want the maximum. They’re not looking for the Auston Matthews four year deal here. They’re looking at a long-term deal.”
Seravalli “My point is two years from now when the Oilers take the ice, those three same guys are going to add up to $40 million bucks.
Stauffer: “$16 (million), $14 and $10?”
Seravalli: “Yup. That’s my projection. And if the Oilers are sitting in their office with (hockey boss) Jeff Jackson’s big board that he has up there, I think the numbers are really close to that. The cap is also going to be $100 million then.”
Stauffer: “And you think they’re going to get all three, specifically McDavid and Draisaitl?”
Seravalli: “This is the only place on planet earth that both of them can play together. Where else are you going to go to play with Connor McDavid? He’s not going anywhere, I don’t think. They’re best friends. How many times this playoffs along has he (Draisaitl) said, ‘Connor McDavid does things no one else can do?’ ”
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Stauffer asked about what Draisaitl told Seravalli on Stanley Cup media day when asked about Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz.
Seravalli: “It’s a story I didn’t really get a chance to tell this Stanley Cup Final just because they are down 3-0 and the vibe has been different, but it’s not lost on me on someone who started coming here 15 years ago how different this place is. Everything this is happening downtown — there is no mosh pit, there is no fan village, there is no gleaming new arena, there is no hotel that all the visiting teams like staying in without the support that they get from Daryl Katz.”
Seravalli said the Oilers were the Green Bay Packers of the NHL. “They’re a juggernaut of league business. The Oilers are a top seven revenue generating team in the NHL. They are a bottom five market size. Do the math on what that means.”
Seravalli said the Stanley Cup tickets are indeed expensive and fans are feeling it, but said the growth and success of the franchise stems from Katz stepping up to buy the team, push the building and provide the resources during lean years.
“Leon (Draisaitl) said they have the best owner in pro sports,” Seravalli said.
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Seravalli said there’s not one thing that’s not looked after for the Oilers. “You want to do something special on an off day for the Super Bowl, we’ll do it…These players have everything at their disposal. Facilities, everything else that comes with it.”
Sevalli said he became interested in Katz’s relations to his players during the Oilers-Stars series when he saw Draisailt and Katz’s celebrating a big win. “They stood there and they hugged. And I was like, ‘Huh, that’s interesting.’ You don’t see that that often. There’s real relationship there.”
My take
1. Seravalli is one of the top insiders in the NHL along with Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Stauffer knows as much about the Oilers as anyone not in management and coaching. If they say they believe something, that doesn’t mean they’re speaking with certainty, but it’s just next to that. They know of what they speak.
2. As such, this is incredibly good news for the Oilers franchise and Oilers fans. Locking up these three players means the Oilers will be a top franchise for many years to come.
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3. Edmonton was unable to keep together its star group of players of the 1980s into the 1990s. The team likely missed out on three or four Stanley Cups it otherwise might have won. It was a bitter pill for fans, such as myself. But things are different time and Daryl Katz does, indeed, deserve a lot of credit, as does former Mayor Stephen Mandel and his city council for pushing ahead with the new arena in the face of heavy, sometimes virulent opposition.
4. I’ve only met Katz once, interviewing him when he bought the team in June 2008, but I’ve always remembered what he had to say about the brevity of life: “I’d like to see the team get into a new arena as soon as possible. Life is short enough as it is. Life is over in a blink of an eye. I’m 47. I think it was yesterday I was 18. It’s over like that. So we don’t have any time to waste. That is a personal philosophy. We want to move forward quickly and try to accomplish as much as we can in as short a period of time as we can.”
That same interview, Katz said he wanted to do something special with the Oilers. Boiled down, he said, his mission was for the Oilers to be an “elite team at the heart of the city.
“I think the city deserves it, and now is the right time. And I think the Oilers franchise deserves it. This is one of the most storied franchises in the league. This team deserves to be an elite team.”
5. Katz got his arena. Now he’s got his elite team. He appears to be intent on keeping it on track. All of this is excellent news for fans of the Edmonton Oilers.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: Oilers will continue to lose until they stop beating themselves
LEAVINS: Player grades in Game 3 loss
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