Leon Draisaitl contract: $104 of $112 million in signing bonuses

After lengthy negotiations and many rumours, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers finally agreed on the terms of an eight-year contract on Tuesday.

Draisaitl will earn a total of $112 million from the contract, making him the player with the most lucrative contract on average per year at $14 million.

What really draws attention to this contract is the way it will be paid. 104 of the $112 million contract is actually a signing bonus.

Leon Draisaitl contract includes $104 million in signing bonus money. #LetsGoOilers

– Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) September 3, 2024

That leaves only $8 million for his base salary over eight years. That means his annual base salary will be just $1 million per season.

That’s just crazy. By comparison, Justin Barron will earn a base salary of $1.2 million in 2025-26, when Draisaitl’s new contract begins.

Draisaitl will enjoy huge signing bonuses every year. For the first three seasons of his contract, he will receive $15.5 million in annual bonuses.

The German joins a long list of players who are asking to be paid signing bonuses in anticipation of a potential lockout.

Even if he is paid mostly in signing bonuses, Draisaitl will weigh heavily on the Oilers’ payroll. If his contract began this season, he would account for 15.91% of the Oilers’ payroll.

But the Oilers couldn’t let him go. Former NHLer Éric Bélanger was on BPM Sports Tuesday to explain why Edmonton made the right choice.

In @belly2020′s opinion, Draisaitl deserves his 14 million a year and did the right thing by not accepting less! What do you think? The full segment is on our website! #draisaitl #oilers #contract #NHL @MartinLemay pic.twitter.com/yQHqVFdg6d

– BPM Sports (@BPMSportsRadio) September 3, 2024

He believes that Draisaitl is worth his $14 million and that he and Connor McDavid form a duo of the NHL’s best players. With these two players on the same team, Edmonton gives itself a chance to win every year.

Finally, we’ve also learned that the deal would have been settled a few days ago, but that the Oilers organization decided to wait before announcing the news, to avoid overshadowing the sad news of the Gaudreau brothers’ death.

Andy Strickland reports that the contract extension between Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers was finalized late last week, but that both sides decided to wait before making the announcement out of respect for all those affected by the brothers’ tragedy … https://t.co/AiO3X5DG4E

– RDS (@RDSca) September 3, 2024

A nice gesture from the Oilers.

Overtime

– A Canadiens first game on Amazon Prime.

Just looking at the upcoming Habs schedule for next season & we noticed that the Monday Oct. 14th game between Pittsburgh & Montreal will be streamed on Amazon Prime in Canada pic.twitter.com/cVGofgwgX4

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) September 3, 2024

– He doesn’t have it easy at the moment.

Only Laurent Courtois can know whether his reputation will be better served by staying or going.

From my outside perspective, he seems to be a victim of decisions beyond his control#CFMTL https://t.co/tFzMifiozy

– Nilton Jorge (@NiltonJorge) September 3, 2024

– Barrie will have a chance in Calgary.

Hearing #Flames are bringing veteran defenseman Tyson Barrie to training camp on a PTO.

One season removed from a 13-goal, 55-point campaign, he isn’t the only surprising name to linger this long.

Needs to earn a deal, but could be a great leadership addition for Calgary.

– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 3, 2024