{"id":220821,"date":"2025-10-17T18:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220821\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:25:09","slug":"recent-extensions-cement-oilers-as-destination-for-stars-in-their-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220821\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent extensions cement Oilers as destination for stars in their prime"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0There was a time when the only way the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> could lure a free agent of any import was to overpay, over-term, and frankly, overestimate the impact they could have on a losing lineup in a lost dressing room.<\/p>\n

The Eric Belangers and Sheldon Sourays would buy in, then eventually get bought out, in an endless cycle of futility that would come to be known as the Decade of Darkness in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

The rink, the weather, their financial mite\u2026 It was old, cold and not very bold.<\/p>\n

Then The Athletic came out with that darned agents poll that had the Oilers neck and neck with the Winnipeg Jets as the place most players least wanted to play, annually confirming the worst fears of Oilers fans.<\/p>\n

Today, the best player in the world just signed a flat deal to play two more seasons in Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl<\/a> is about two seasons away from being underpaid through the remainder of an eight-year contract, and Mattias Ekholm<\/a> took perhaps $2 million less than the market might have borne to stay in a city that his family has fallen in love with.<\/p>\n

Somehow, the Edmonton Oilers flipped the script for a city and team that was an NHL afterthought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m 35,\u201d begins Ekholm, an Olympic-level defenceman who has chosen Edmonton as a place to finish a career \u2014 and quite possibly to live long-term when his hockey days are over. \u201cI understand that I can probably go make six million bucks somewhere, to try to get some D-corps to find their feet and be good in five years, eight years, whatever. But then I’ll be out the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do I want with my career? I want to win \u2014\u00a0that’s the bottom line. And where do I have the best possibility of doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to say that all the Oilers had to do to turn their culture around was acquire Connor McDavid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Ekholm will tell you, any resurgence in popularity among NHL players \u201cstarts with the competitiveness of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a team can\u2019t control where it is going to draft, or which player will be waiting for you when it\u2019s your turn on the clock.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s Nail Yakupov at No. 1, sometimes it\u2019s Draisaitl at No. 3. (Thanks, Buffalo.)<\/p>\n

What you can control, however, is the construction of a world-class arena and facilities \u2014\u00a0including the attached practice rink (see: Vancouver) \u2014 that are superior to 95 per cent of NHL opponents, and an owner that treats his players no worse, and often better, than the best owner in the sport.<\/p>\n

You can deftly assemble a dressing room with a functioning culture, proper leadership and demonstrable winning pedigree \u2014\u00a0perhaps the biggest weapon for general manager Stan Bowman when acquiring players, considering Edmonton\u2019s waning draft capital and a near-empty prospects cupboard after years of Stanley Cup contention.<\/p>\n

Bowman can\u2019t change the weather, so something had to give for Edmonton to become a place where good players in their prime years wished to come.<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers have a lot of trade protection and for different reasons. Guys don’t want to go to certain cities,\u201d said 35-year-old Adam Henrique. \u201cWhether it’s the cold, the team, the losing\u2026 It’s a tough combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henrique arrived at the 2024 trade deadline with an AAV of $5.85 million. That summer, he signed a two-year deal worth $3 million per season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can play this game for different reasons,\u201d says Henrique, scheduled to play his 1,000th\u00a0NHL game Tuesday night in Ottawa. \u201cYour motivation can certainly be money \u2014\u00a0we get a short window to play this game and try to make the most money possible for the rest of your life, for you and your family. Guys are deserving of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there’s that big middle gap in my career (in Anaheim) where I made pretty good money, but it becomes a job. You know going in that we’re probably not winning the Cup or making the playoffs, so you\u2019ve got to find motivation. At times, for me, that motivation became, \u2018A good team that’s going to have a chance to win, what are they going to want in me as a player?\u2019 I had to perform to come somewhere else, and that happened to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t cry a tear for Henrique, who has career earnings of around $58 million. But he\u2019s been to three Cup Finals and lost them all, a 1,000-game player without a Stanley Cup ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, if I made two or three or four million bucks more than where I’m at, is that going to make a huge difference in the rest of my life? Probably not,\u201d he admitted. \u201cWhen I was little, doing my projects in grade school, it wasn’t like, \u2018I just want to make the most money ever.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was \u2018I want to win a Stanley Cup.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Draisaitl was underpaid with an AAV of $8.5 million for the lion\u2019s share of his last contract. Now he is in Year 1 of an eight-year pact that pays him $14 million per season \u2014\u00a0while a lesser player like Kirill Kaprizov has already surpassed Draisaitl with his $17 million deal.<\/p>\n

Which will make sweeter memories for Draisaitl? That extra few million, or a Stanley Cup ring?<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly the Stanley Cup, no doubt about it,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of the day, we’re all going to be all right either way, with what we have. For us, it’s all about trying to win the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery player makes their own decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to win. That’s no secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Edmonton has quietly become a Detroit or St. Louis \u2014\u00a0cities that are not usually well thought of by short-term visitors in downtown hotels, but beloved by those who get to know the city and have time to enjoy the things that make them unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a guy that knew basically nothing about Edmonton coming here, it surprised me big time with how quality of life,\u201d said Ekholm, who was dealt to the Oilers after an entire career spent in Nashville. \u201cIn Canada, they\u2019ve got the indoor rec centres. You don’t just have to go out and just dress in three jackets. There is different stuff to do, and people don’t know that until they come here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that you\u2019ve got to just withstand the cold in January, February, whatever. A couple of cold weeks. But then in the summers, you actually appreciate them, because you don’t get (warm weather) all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schools, programs, an outdoorsy lifestyle\u2026<\/p>\n

Those things may mean little to younger players in their restricted contract years, but as they get older and greet free agency, often that comes with partners and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I left money on the table, that’s not the most important thing right now,\u201d said Ekholm. \u201cI’ve made my money. I’d rather be happy in a place and make maybe a little less money than miserable somewhere and the bank account is growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can be somewhere I can win, and my family is doing good, why change?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0There was a time when the only way the Edmonton Oilers could lure a free agent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-220821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}