Star forward Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers inked an eight-year contract deal worth $112 million on Tuesday, September 3, with an average annual value (AAV) of $14 million. The extension begins on July 1, 2025, which is also Draisaitl’s existing eight-year contract’s expiration date.
The 13-year, $124 million contract that Alex Ovechkin signed with the Washington Capitals in 2008 is the only contract in NHL history with a higher average annual salary (AAV) and a larger total value.
Draisaitl now has the biggest contract ever signed with the Oilers, surpassing team captain Connor McDavid, who has two seasons left on his eight-year, $100 million deal.
Considering there was a time when Edmonton couldn’t even afford to retain its top players, for the Oilers to now have two homegrown stars with nine-figure deals seems surreal.
However, since the NHL imposed a salary cap in 2005, the Oilers have now handed out eight contracts worth at least $40 million. Here’s a look at all of them:
Leon Draisaitl – $112 Million
The Oilers avoided going into 2024-25 with the risk of having Draisaitl hitting free agency at season’s end by inking the 28-year-old to a historic contract on Tuesday.
Draisaitl will be age 37 when the deal expires in 2033, and if he remains with the Oilers through the length of the contract, he will have spent 19 seasons in Edmonton. The current franchise record for most seasons playing at least one game is 15, shared by Kevin Lowe and Ryan Smyth.
Connor McDavid – $100 Million
Fresh off winning the Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy, both for the first time, in 2016-17, McDavid signed an eight-year extension worth $100 million on July 5, 2017. At the time he was the fifth player in NHL history to receive a nine-figure contract.
When the extension kicked in for the 2018-19 season, McDavid became the NHL’s highest-paid player based on AAV, at $12.5 million per season. He has since been surpassed by Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, whose latest contract carries an AAV of $12.6 million, and now Draisaitl.
Darnell Nurse – $74 Million
On Aug. 6, 2021, one season before he would become eligible for free agency, Darnell Nurse signed an eight-year contract extension worth $74 million on Aug. 6, 2021, the biggest deal Edmonton has ever given a defenceman.
The deal kicked in for the 2022-23 season, making Nurse the seventh highest-paid blueliner in the NHL based on AAV, at $9.25 million per season. He will be 35 years old when the contract expires in 2030.
Leon Draisaitl – $68 Million
The 2017 offseason was monumental for the Oilers: only a few weeks after they locked up McDavid long-term, they did the same with Draisaitl, inking the restricted free agent to an eight-year, $68 million deal on Aug. 16, 2017. The contract’s AAV of $8.5 million was tied for 10th highest in the NHL in 2017-18.
Draisaitl wasn’t entirely proven at the time, with less than 200 regular season NHL games under his belt and having scored at least 20 goals in a season just once. But he has more than delivered on the contract, with five seasons of at least 105 points since 2018.
Taylor Hall – $42 Million
On Aug. 22, 2012, Taylor Hall became the first Oilers player to break the $40 million barrier, signing a seven-year contract extension worth $42 million. The deal kicked in on July 1, 2013, after his three-year entry-level contract expired.
Hall still had four years left on his contract when the Oilers traded him to the New Jersey Devils for defenceman Adam Larsson on June 29, 2016. Larsson was going into the second season of a six-year, $25 million contract. Hall would win the Hart Trophy in 2018 as a member of the Devils.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – $42 Million
Barely two years after he walked across the stage as the first pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins signed a seven-year contract extension worth $42 million on Sept. 9, 2013. The forward’s deal kicked in for the 2014-15 season.
Notably, the deal carried an AAV of $6 million, which was exactly the same as both Hall’s contract as well as the six-year, $36 million extension also signed in 2012 by Jordan Eberle, thus ensuring that Edmonton’s three young guns of the time were being paid equally.
Milan Lucic – $42 Million
Milan Lucic received what is still the biggest contract that Edmonton has ever given to another team’s free agent, on July 1, 2016, when the big forward left the Los Angeles Kings to sign a seven-year, $42 million deal with the Oilers.
Lucic, who had just turned 28, was coming off the fourth 20-goal season of his career. But his offensive production declined in Edmonton, bottoming out at six goals in 2018-19. On July 19, 2019, after just three seasons with the Oilers, he was dealt along with a conditional draft pick to the Calgary Flames for forward James Neal.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – $41 Million
On June 29, 2021, Nugent-Hopkins re-signed with the Oilers, agreeing on an eight-year contract extension, that at $41 million and an AAV of $5.125 million is actually worth less than the deal he signed back in 2012.
We're keeping him. 😉
The #Oilers have signed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to an eight-year contract extension with an AAV of 5.125 million. #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/pUyd9jk5qf
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 29, 2021
The deal, which includes a no-trade clause, expires after the 2028-29 season when Nugent-Hopkins will be 36. He is on pace to break the record for most seasons playing at least one game with the Oilers in 2026-27.
If everything goes as the Oilers and their fans hope, the next big contract Edmonton signs will be another historic one. With McDavid’s current contract set to expire after the 2025-26 season, the Oilers will want to get him extended next summer, and the next contract that he signs will no doubt be the biggest in NHL history.
