"The NHL salary cap is set to rise precipitously. Connor McDavid is still 28 years old, and he is Connor McDavid. The Edmonton Oilers, as a team and as a business, rely heavily on their continued employment of Connor McDavid. So it was easy, when extension talks neared an agreement, to imagine some insane numbers. The max eight years for certain, and an AAV that starts with a "20" and ends in "million" seemed likely."
"Barring the existence and machinations of an Uncle Dennis McDavid, the short term and criminally low salary make crystal-clear what this contract represents. The Oilers, two-time Cup Final losers, have a window, and McDavid wants to see that window through to its closing. He is taking significantly less money to let the team afford complementary pieces ( like Jake Walman)-a thing fans talk about often but which actually happens rarely."
"The NHLPA can't be thrilled with this-after Kirill Kaprizov raised the bar to $17 million per season last week, McDavid could have snapped it in two-but it makes some sense for him. He seems to like Edmonton, as a city and as an organization; they treat him well. It's not for a lack of trying that they can't find a goalie."
Connor McDavid, still 28, signed a surprisingly short-term, low-salary extension despite a rising NHL salary cap and expectations of a massive deal. The Edmonton Oilers rely heavily on McDavid as both a player and a business asset. McDavid accepted less money to allow the team to afford complementary pieces and preserve immediate contention rather than locking himself into a difficult-to-trade long-term contract. The deal covers the next two seasons after this one, giving Edmonton roughly three years to win a Stanley Cup. Few teams can currently offer him a better championship opportunity, and he remains positioned to seek a maximum long-term deal later.
Read at Defector
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]