Stan Bowman And The Oilers Just Gave Leon Draisailt THE BAG. 8 Years And $112M

BIG contract for Leon. This deal should take him right to the very end of his career. Great player. Deserved to get paid. He was always going to get paid. It was just a matter of by who and when. Stan Bowman parachuted in to give him a deal that resets the market as he loves to do. 

Truly a rock and a hard place situation. The Oilers were one game away from the Stanley Cup last year. Leon is one of your most important players. Having said that...Stan Bowman is immediately back in Salary Cap hell. The Oilers still have to extend McDavid after this year year (two seasons left on current deal with a $12.5AAV), Evan Bouchard is going to get a HUGE pay day after this season. Bouchard will probably make over $9M. Darnell Nurse is already making $9.5M. You're probably talking at least $50M tied up in 4 players. That is...less than ideal. 

Again, I don't know what I'd do. Hard to say the right thing to do is to walk away from Leon, but the Oilers are in a tough spot. Top heavy cap as it was, just lost two guys to offer sheets from STL, and a prospect pool ranked down near the bottom of the league. I have a hard time imagining this group getting better as they get older. Maybe it would've been better overall to trade Leon for young players, prospects, and picks and spread his $14M across problem areas knowing that McDavid is always going to be able to carry the offense. This is the Stan Bowman experience. God speed, Edmonton. Not rooting against you, but this feels like a familiar nightmare.