Oilers have two potentially big contracts to negotiate before year’s end

Big contracts are nothing new for the Edmonton Oilers. Connor McDavid currently has the largest annual cap hit in the NHL at $12.5 million per year (and he deserves every penny of it). Leon Draisatl is also up there with an $8.5 million AAV for the next five seasons after this one. Two more players will become free agents--one restricted, the other unrestricted--before this season ends should they not sign an extension before then. This was one of the topics on last night Insider Trading on TSN. 

We’ll start with forward Zach Kassian. The 28-year-old, who’s had his fair share of troubles in his NHL career, is on pace to set new highs pretty much across the board. This is something every player in a contract year dreams of. With 23 points already in 33 games this season (12 goals, 11 assists), Kassian is just six points away from his previous career high of 29 points set with the Vancouver Canucks in 2013-14. It stands to reason he’ll be looking for more than the $1.95 million he’s currently getting. According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, negotiations are already underway:

“We can tell you that the agent for Zach Kassian, Rick Curran, was in Dallas on Monday and met with Oilers General Manager Ken Holland to begin talks on a contract. They’re only preliminary. They will try and drill down on this in the next couple of weeks. Kassian is going to try to parlay some really strong play on Connor McDavid’s line into a multi-year deal. I’m sure they’ll go back and forth.”

Then there’s impending RFA defenseman Darnell Nurse. The 24-year-old, who had career highs last year with 41 points, is on pace to come very close to those numbers once again, currently recording 17 points (two goals and 15 assists) in 36 games. He’ll also have arbitration rights at the end of the season if a deal isn’t done before then. According to McKenzie, this one will be a bit more difficult for the Oilers, given the potential implications.

“Two years away from unrestricted free agency, and this might be a tougher nut to crack for the Edmonton Oilers. He wants to stay in Edmonton, no doubt about that but you can’t do a six or seven or eight year deal because the numbers would just be too big, especially in year one and year two when the Oilers have some cap problems over the next couple of seasons. Could it be a four or five-year deal? It could. Could it also be a two-year deal? It starts to get really complicated.”

Nurse is currently making $3.2 million per season.  

There’s little doubt the Oilers want to hang on to both these players and, given their current play, both likely feel they are in line for raises of some sort. Will the asks be too high for Edmonton to handle? That remains to be seen. There is much more to come on the negotiations surrounding both these players.