We’re just under a week out from the Oilers signing Leon Draisaitl to a massive eight-year, $112 million extension, and it got me thinking about how different this team is now from the one I fell in love with as a kid.
When I first started watching—and falling in love with—the Oilers, it was back in the 90s after the Hall of Famers had already been sold off, and the struggle to keep talent around was real. I remember my favourite players like Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, Curtis Joseph, and Ryan Smyth landing bigger paycheques in other markets but stating how much they loved Edmonton even though they were leaving town.
For a young Baggedmilk, it was confusing to watch these guys talk about their love for the city and the fanbase but have them leave for bigger markets. Of course, when you’re a kid, the last thing you have a handle on is how much money pro athletes can make and how short the window is for them to maximize their income. All I knew then was that the Oilers couldn’t afford to keep their best guys, and it felt like we were in an endless loop of watching guys land here, find some success, and price themselves out of the market.
On Thursday, Gregor wrote a piece about how the best players used to leave or get traded in their prime all the time, and it encompasses exactly what I’m talking about, even though he’s using the OG stars as examples:
The Edmonton Oilers have never had a superstar player commit long-term to the franchise during the peak of their career. Wayne Gretzky signed a 21-year personal services contract with Peter Pocklington and the Oilers in January of 1979, but the Oilers were still in the WHA, and Gretzky was traded 9.5 years later when he was 27. Paul Coffey was 25 when he was traded to Pittsburgh. Grant Fuhr was 28 when he was dealt to Toronto. Mark Messier was moved when he was 30. Jari Kurri was also 30 when he played his final game with Edmonton. Glenn Anderson was traded when he was 30, but he returned to play 17 games for the Oilers when he was 36.
Basically, if you were a fan of the Oilers, the general vibe was to enjoy the best players while you could because it wasn’t going to be long until they left for a bigger payday. Losing the players we loved undoubtedly sucked, but it felt like reality for a team that was very close to leaving our fair city. Sure, it was sad that Player X, Y, or Z left town but at least we still had the Oilers to cheer for, right?
So when Leon Draisaitl signed his mammoth extension this past week to keep him around from post-to-post on his career, it felt like the kind of moment that young Baggedmilk would have never understood. Not only was one of the league’s best players choosing to stay in Edmonton, but the organization was more than willing to pony up the dough to keep him around. Needless to say, this was unlike anything the team would have been able to do when I first started paying attention.
For those of us who were around during those lean years, Leon’s new deal marks a cosmic shift in both the attitude toward being an Oiler and also the health of the organization. We’re not the penny-pinching franchise anymore, nor are we a team that no one wants to join because of the weather or the limited nightclub access.
On this week’s episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman spoke about the Oilers and noted that players who used to have Edmonton on their no-trade lists have asked their agents to remove the team.
“I’ll tell you what else has happened this year. I’ve heard from some agents, there were players who took Edmonton off their no-trade list. They had Edmonton there the year before but they said ‘You can take Edmonton off.’
That’s a sign. You can talk about the weather, you can talk about the taxes, you can talk about the attention, but the number one thing is still — where do I think I can win? Any player you want, that’s the number one thing. Players right now, they think they can win in Edmonton.
So, what am I getting at with all of this? I don’t really know apart from saying that this change in how other people see the Oilers is unlikely anything I experienced before. Instead of worrying about our best players leaving town for greener pastures, Edmonton is turning into a destination for the first time in my years as a fan and it’s going to take a minute to get used to that shift. What would the future look like for the Oilers if we’re no longer a team with the best players listed on their no-trade lists?
Even though it will take time for Edmonton’s new-found position as a destination to play out fully, we’ve already seen players choose the Oilers in free agency without having to break the bank to make it happen, and that’s a change that would have seemed impossible not that long ago. If the Oilers are going to climb to the top of the NHL pile and win their first Stanley Cup since 1990, having players believe in what’s going on and choose to stick around has to be one of the first steps to putting it all together.
All I know for sure is that the Oilers look and feel much different than they did when I started falling in love with the team all those years ago, and signing Leon Draisaitl to a second max-term contract extension feels like a pivotal moment for the franchise. Only time will tell what this change in perspective about the team will mean, but as someone who experienced more than my share of heartbreak with my favourites leaving town, this new era feels like a very exciting time to be an Oilers fan.
