September 28, 2022 by Eric Friesen

After minimal increases in the NHL salary cap since the COVID-19 pandemic, cap-crunched teams like the Edmonton Oilers can bank on a significant rise sooner than expected.

Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the salary cap upper limit could potentially reach $83.5 million in 2023-24, $87.5 million in 2024-25 and $92 million in 2025-26. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, that the league’s revenue projections for the 2022-23 season indicate a larger jump by the middle of the decade.

“I’ve seen some preliminary estimates recently which would make me more optimistic on the cap going up sooner whether that’s in two seasons or three seasons, I think it’s more likely than not two seasons rather than three,” said Daly on NHL Media Day on August 24. “The better [the NHL does] collectively from a revenue standpoint, the faster we get to a stage where the cap can go up.”

McDavid and Draisaitl’s have outperformed their contracts

In the summer of 2017, former Oilers General General Manger Peter Chiarelli made his two best moves on the job when he signed Connor McDavid to an eight-year contract extension worth $100 million (he had one year remaining on his entry-level deal) and Leon Draisaitl to an eight-year contract worth $68 million. Locking up their two superstar players to the maximum term length was essential to turning the Oilers into a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Related: Connor McDavid: ‘I want to be in Edmonton, and I want to win in Edmonton’

McDavid, who has the highest cap hit in NHL history at $12.5 million, reportedly left money on the table to help the Oilers build a strong team around him. No player can exceed 20% of their team’s salary cap, so McDavid could have earned as much as $15 million of the $75 million upper cap limit when he inked his extension in 2017. He would have been worth that much, even at age 21.

While few disputed that McDavid deserved to become the highest-paid player in the game at the conclusion of his entry-level contract, many hockey observers immediately called Draisaitl one of the most overpaid players in the league. Whenever teams start paying for UFA years, the average annual value almost always goes up. Still, the consensus at the time seemed to be that the contract was $1 million too rich per season. Draisaitl has gone on to prove his critics wrong.

Here’s where McDavid and Draisaitl rank in the NHL in several statistical categories since 2018-19:

Connor McDavid

Goals – 152 (4th)

Assists – 289 (1st)

Points – 441 (1st)

Game-Winning Goals – 35 (1st)

Power-Play Goals – 39 (12th)

Power-Play Points – 157 (1st)

Leon Draisaitl

Goals – 179 (2nd)

Assists – 230 (5th)

Points – 409 (2nd)

Game-Winning Goals – 35 (1st)

Power-Play Goals – 71 (1st)

Power-Play Points – 146 (2nd)

What will their next contracts look like?

The salary camp is expected to jump by nearly $10 million between now and the summer of 2025, which is when Draisaitl will need a new contract. McDavid’s contract expires the following summer. Based on the latest information from the league, it’s reasonable to assume that the salary cap could climb to $95 million or higher in 2026. Now, most of that additional cap space, if not all of it, will be allocated to just McDavid and Draisaitl. And no one in Oil Country should complain about that.

Though the Oilers will surely have other key players to re-sign, nothing more important to the future success of the team than keeping McDavid and Draisaitl in Edmonton for their entire careers. “The Dynamic Duo” have each expressed their desire to remain with the Oilers and bring the Stanley Cup back to Edmonton for the first time in more than three decades.

McDavid will have the highest cap hit in the league for one more season, before Nathan MacKinnon’s extension starts in 2023-24. Since Draisaitl’s contract expires a year earlier than McDavid’s, it would not shock me if Draisaitl earns more than McDavid for one season like in 2017-18. If it costs $13 million annually to re-sign Draisaitl, the Oilers shouldn’t hesitate for a second. Even if he’s no longer a 100-point scorer, Draisaitl should still be around a point-per-game player for most of his 30s.

There’s a real chance that Draisaitl, MacKinnon and Auston Matthews will all be paid more than McDavid during the 2025-26 season. But the following season, McDavid will undoubtedly surpass all of them and become hockey’s highest-paid player again at age 29. The four-time Art Ross Trophy winner could have been making $15 million per season since 2017-18, and on his next deal, he will be (if not more).

I think McDavid and Draisaitl will come close to making a combined $30 million in 2026-27. And while it seems like an unthinkable amount of money for only two players, they are the two greatest offensive players of their generation, and they deserve it.