McDavid To Go To Edmonton

[woody1948]

This past season you could buy nose bleed seats to the Edmonton games, for $7.00. Unless the Leafs were in town. I don't think you will see that again, now that they have McDavid. He will be a massive box office draw, and I can't foresee Edmonton letting him go.

[BIG MAC]

McDavid will be an Oiler for at least 9 seasons,,,,think at 27 or 28 they can file for Free Agency.......be interesting to see what they do in that time frame.

doesn't sound like he"s to happy to be going and can't say I blame him.......one of the worst managed teams ( right up there with the leafs ).

[kickingfrog]

In most of the usual cases for unrestricted free agency it's 27 years of age or 7 years of NHL experience (for McDavid that puts him at 25 I think). Assuming he is the star he appears to be and makes the team in the fall and stays there with out going back to junior.

He'll have to sign a 3 year entry level deal that might max out at a million dollars per year plus some bonuses.

It will be the second contract that will be the interesting one since he'll still be 4 seasons from being unrestricted, but as we've seen with the other young stars teams don't want them to get to that 7th season without a long term deal.

Again this is all predicated on him being star/super star player and not just really good.

[Dythbringer]

McDavid will likely never hit Edmonton. He'll be bought before he ever gets there for some ridiculously high figure.

I cannot see a scenario where that happens.

An argument can be made, and was, that they should have traded down some of their other picks in past years. Now I think they will trade some of their young offensive talent for goal or defensive help to better balance their team.

I can see a scenario where that happens. Edmonton drafts McDavid. McDavid doesn't sign a contract with them, plays two years in Junior and one in Europe and then enters the free agency market.

[kickingfrog]

I can see a scenario where that happens. Edmonton drafts McDavid. McDavid doesn't sign a contract with them, plays two years in Junior and one in Europe and then enters the free agency market.

That won't happen and that can't happen. There are agreements in place not to poach players from the nhl. The khl is the only option and given the economy in Russia there isn't the money to draw him away. Even if he did do something like what you proposed he would still be bound by entry level contract maximums and terms if/when he returned. 25 year olds from Europe signing their first nhl deals are still bound by entry level dollars and years.

[Dythbringer]

That won't happen and that can't happen. There are agreements in place not to poach players from the nhl. The khl is the only option and given the economy in Russia there isn't the money to draw him away. Even if he did do something like what you proposed he would still be bound by entry level contract maximums and terms if/when he returned. 25 year olds from Europe signing their first nhl deals are still bound by entry level dollars and years.

There are agreements in place not to poach signed players from the NHL, yes (Ilya Kovalchuk was under contract with the Devils, retired from the NHL and then four days later signed a deal with SKA Saint Petersburg so it has happened before). There isn't any agreements about unsigned players. Yes he still would be bound by entry level dollars, etc. However, he would be 21 and he would be past the draft eligibility requirements (North American player 18-20 years old or a European player of any age entering the league for the first time) and a free agent rather than have to go through the draft again.