Way-Too-Early Trade Landing Spots for Oilers Center Leon Draisaitl

The Edmonton Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final was a long-awaited moment for their superstar duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

However, their dream of winning it all came to a crushing end after a heartbreaking Game 7 to the Florida Panthers, and the Oilers’ attention will turn to the offseason where a look into the near future shows they may have some difficult decisions to make.

One of their first big choices is how they’ll handle Draisaitl’s impending unrestricted free agency. The German winger can become a free agent after next season, but he can also negotiate a long-term deal with Edmonton starting on July 1.

With an $8.5 million cap hit currently, Draisaitl is almost certainly due for a raise on that thanks to being one of the top five scorers in the NHL. He can play center, excel along the wing and dominate on the power play.

The 28-year-old is an offensive master and would provide any team he played on an instant improvement in their goal output.

It’s a big moment for Draisaitl and the Oilers alike and if he’s not staying, where would he be going? Let’s look around the league and scout out the best situations.

The San Jose Sharks are going to be a chic team to pick for big-name players these days, but there’s a bit more to think that Leon Draisaitl would go there aside from getting to play with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.

On The Jeff Marek Show in May, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski and Sportsnet’s Marek discussed how Draisaitl could be a target for the Sharks if he hits free agency thanks to their owner, Hasso Plattner, being a fellow German.

If—and that’s a big “if”—Draisaitl makes it to next July 1 and free agency, San Jose would have a boatload of money available to sign him. It wouldn’t be able to sign him to an eight-year deal unless it traded for him or his rights in advance, but he would be able to command a monster salary on the open market. And with a countryman owning the Sharks, the connection is logical.

But picture adding a talent like Draisaitl to a group that will have Celebrini, Smith and William Eklund among them. It would help the Sharks take a big step forward toward getting back to the playoffs.

Sure, the Boston Bruins were in salary-cap purgatory this season and things figure to be tight again next year, but there’s a hole at center they could stand to fill with a high-end talent. And it’s hard to argue against Draisaitl being a great choice to do that.

We’re not picking on Charlie Coyle or Pavel Zacha here and nor are we forgetting about Matthew Poitras in Boston, but if they had the opportunity to acquire Draisaitl via trade or just by spending money in free agency, it’s a slam dunk for them.

Imagine Draisaitl teaming up with David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy on defense to generate goals. That would be tantalizing if you’re a Bruins fan and a nightmare if you’re a fan of any other team, especially in the Eastern Conference.

The Bruins have been sort of cobbling together a group of forwards who play especially hard with how tight they’ve been to the salary cap and after Patrice Bergeron retired, they’ve had questions up the middle. Draisaitl would fix that instantly.

Imagine going from playing with Connor McDavid to Connor Bedard if you’re Draisaitl.

If the Chicago Blackhawks want to flex their might of prospects and draft picks, maybe they could make it happen.

Chicago wants to improve its roster to better help Bedard and get the team closer to returning to the postseason. That’s difficult to do through free agency and making trades is generally tough to do as well.

If things with Edmonton get ugly and Draisaitl insists on going to free agency or sooner than that, Chicago has all the capabilities to pull off a deal.

Its stockpile of picks and high-end prospects has grown over the past couple of years and the massive amount of salary-cap space it has to work with as well.

Chicago is well-prepared to make any kind of massive move when the time is appropriate and if Draisaitl were to become available, that should be plenty enough reason for GM Kyle Davidson to act.

Not that Chicago needs even more superstar power with Bedard already there with Seth Jones, but adding a player like Draisaitl would make them must-see TV.

It seems like the Carolina Hurricanes have been pursuing one more big punch at forward the past couple of years.

There was talk of them trading for and later signing Patrick Kane that never happened, but if there was a chance for them to add Draisaitl, it might be the move that puts them over the top to win a Stanley Cup.

The Hurricanes will have some beefy contracts to hand out in the near future to Seth Jarvis and potentially Martin Nečas (if he’s not traded) as well as potential July 1 free agents, defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei.

If Carolina wants to stop tiptoeing around wanting to add someone who can be a complementary player and say, “Forget it, we’re doing this,” making a play for Draisaitl would be the most effective way to make that happen.

The cost in a trade would be high, but if they’re going to deal with Nečas, build an offer for Draisaitl that starts with him and start adding on from there.

Carolina’s gotten to where it is by being heady about signings and trades, but from a raw talent standpoint, Draisaitl would propel it to another level where it would be extremely difficult to contain.

After all, if the team game plan is to pepper the opposing net with shots from anywhere in the zone, getting the guy who can score from just about anywhere on the ice would be a perfect fit.

The Detroit Red Wings are going to sign Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond to substantial contract extensions in the near future, and that part of Steve Yzerman’s plan to get them back to the playoffs and beyond makes sense.

What else would make sense? Getting Draisaitl on board to send them flying.

When the Red Wings added Patrick Kane this season, they hoped he would not only find his game again but also be the difference-maker who put them into the playoffs. The 35-year-old found his game, but the team didn’t find the postseason.

No offense to Kane, but if the Red Wings put together a deal to acquire Draisaitl, their prospects of returning to the playoffs would change dramatically for the better.

Draisaitl teaming up with Seider, Raymond, Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat would give Detroit an electric group to work with and pile up goals.

If you put Draisaitl on the wing or at center, his versatility would allow it to produce a lot of different looks and make it a nightmare to match up against.

It would also be easy enough for the Red Wings to ink him long-term as well, given they have only a handful of long-term commitments.

The Oilers don’t necessarily have any major roadblocks to re-signing Draisaitl.

Connor McDavid’s contract is up in two years and his $12.5 million cap hit will probably jump up (as it should). Darnell Nurse’s $9.5 million hit is a bit tough to handle, but when it comes to long-term commitments, they’re not really overburdened.

But perhaps playing in McDavid’s shadow is hard or maybe his sometime crankiness with Edmonton media has him thinking the grass is greener elsewhere. Those would be the real roadblocks to the Oilers being unable to re-sign Draisaitl, but the truth is it should be relatively easy, financially speaking, to extend him for the long term.

The Oilers’ title hopes would plummet without Draisaitl. As it is, they already rely heavily on McDavid and the German to carry their offense and, as we’ve seen in the Stanley Cup Final, their chances of winning drop off a cliff if they aren’t able to contribute.

Extending Draisaitl and McDavid are Edmonton’s top priorities the next couple summers, but if it fails to do that with one, we’ll be back to talking about it needing lottery luck on its side again.

It’s easy to be all doom and gloom when things are grim, but there’s no way that happens…right?