Player Discussion Leon Draisaitl - 2019 All-Star

[JayE]

Who would you rather have, Stone (9.5) or Drai (8.5)?

It's not even close.

Only the biggest haters wont admit that Chia signed him to an incredible contract.

It's not a great contract in the context of when it was signed. He's easily worth the contract and more going forward, but relative to the guys who had signed their contracts earlier (MacKinnon, Barkov and Gaudreau being the biggest examples), Chiarelli could have easily argued that 8.5 million was too much for Draisaitl at that point in time (due to the market, not because of any lack of quality for Draisaitl). Those teams have a significant cap advantage in that they were able to sign their elite players at what will amount to a massive discount because of the market when they were signed. Draisaitl is now an elite forward in the game and is probably going to be underpaid with the inflation of contracts given to RFAs that is currently happening, but it's hard to commend Chiarelli for signing him for that amount at that point in time. In the grand scheme of Chiarelli's miscalculations, it doesn't even register, though, because Draisaitl is going to be an exceptional player for a long time.

 

[PBandJ]

It is okay....nobody gets it right all the time....

I can still remember seeing some of the infamous Mikinov videos and thinking this guy has it all! Or Schremp....or MPS.....or Pulju......

I watched him get absolutely wrecked and do nothing in the first round of the WHL playoffs that year. He had shown nothing to me at that point.

Good on him for figuring it out, but at that point, he skated like he had cement on his skates and was easily shut down by anyone who keyed in on him.

 

[oobga]

It's not a great contract in the context of when it was signed. He's easily worth the contract and more going forward, but relative to the guys who had signed their contracts earlier (MacKinnon, Barkov and Gaudreau being the biggest examples), Chiarelli could have easily argued that 8.5 million was too much for Draisaitl at that point in time (due to the market, not because of any lack of quality for Draisaitl). Those teams have a significant cap advantage in that they were able to sign their elite players at what will amount to a massive discount because of the market when they were signed. Draisaitl is now an elite forward in the game and is probably going to be underpaid with the inflation of contracts given to RFAs that is currently happening, but it's hard to commend Chiarelli for signing him for that amount at that point in time. In the grand scheme of Chiarelli's miscalculations, it doesn't even register, though, because Draisaitl is going to be an exceptional player for a long time.

I think the McDavid deal is what messed things up. He changed the landscape that summer, and you can see all the young player contracts, starting with Drai that came after.

Seems the only hope was to try to sign Drai before McDavid. Unfortunately, I don't think you let McDavid twist in the wind after July 1st that summer. You have to give the generational guy your full attention ASAP and get that extension done. If Drai's camp insisted on waiting until after July 1st as well...I think it is what it is, and they are damn smart to have done so, because his playoff heater away from McDavid helped their negotiating power tremendously, as well as McDavid's deal that inflated prices for young guys and their 2nd deals.

The Pastrnak one is an outlier in my argument of course. But, he was the 3rd best player on his line at that point. Plus he seems to be a guy that genuinely doesn't care about money any time he's asked about his deal. He may have not given his agent much more orders than just to get a deal done because he wants to play. That's great, but anyone that hopes all players will act that way is dreaming.

Don't want to give Chia a full pass though He definitely sucked at negotiating. 7.5-8M is probably where Lucky Lou would have landed with Drai if he was in the position that summer. McDavid probably still gets 12.5M no matter who is GM.

 

[JayE]

I think the McDavid deal is what messed things up. He changed the landscape that summer, and you can see all the young player contracts, starting with Drai that came after.

Seems the only hope was to try to sign Drai before McDavid. Unfortunately, I don't think you let McDavid twist in the wind after July 1st that summer. You have to give the generational guy your full attention ASAP and get that extension done. If Drai's camp insisted on waiting until after July 1st as well...I think it is what it is, and they are damn smart to have done so, because his playoff heater away from McDavid helped their negotiating power tremendously, as well as McDavid's deal that inflated prices for young guys and their 2nd deals.

The Pastrnak one is an outlier in my argument of course. But, he was the 3rd best player on his line at that point. Plus he seems to be a guy that genuinely doesn't care about money any time he's asked about his deal. He may have not given his agent much more orders than just to get a deal done because he wants to play. That's great, but anyone that hopes all players will act that way is dreaming.

Don't want to give Chia a full pass though He definitely sucked at negotiating. 7.5-8M is probably where Lucky Lou would have landed with Drai if he was in the position that summer. McDavid probably still gets 12.5M no matter who is GM.

Yeah, that does need to be noted. His great playoff kind of skewed things, too. At the end of the day, we might have saved 1-1.5 million, which, with the team where it is now, would matter, but is massively overshadowed by essentially everything else Chiarelli did.

 

[Fourier]

It's not a great contract in the context of when it was signed. He's easily worth the contract and more going forward, but relative to the guys who had signed their contracts earlier (MacKinnon, Barkov and Gaudreau being the biggest examples), Chiarelli could have easily argued that 8.5 million was too much for Draisaitl at that point in time (due to the market, not because of any lack of quality for Draisaitl). Those teams have a significant cap advantage in that they were able to sign their elite players at what will amount to a massive discount because of the market when they were signed. Draisaitl is now an elite forward in the game and is probably going to be underpaid with the inflation of contracts given to RFAs that is currently happening, but it's hard to commend Chiarelli for signing him for that amount at that point in time. In the grand scheme of Chiarelli's miscalculations, it doesn't even register, though, because Draisaitl is going to be an exceptional player for a long time.

I have been critical of the number of mistakes Chia made with contracts that added up. But at best you may have gotten him for $7.5M on 8 years and or maybe $7M for 6. You can't compare the deals that MacKinnon and Gaudreau signed straight up. MacKinnon was coming off of seasons with 63, 38 and 52 points. Gaudreau had no leverage with Calgary since he was not eligible for an OS. But the big difference is that his deal was only 6 years. An 8 year deal would have probably added on at least $1M. Factor in the cap inflation and the comparable number for JG is in the $7.75-8M range.

The contract was never a long term risk of any consequence. The issue was the short term cap crunch that Chia put the Oilers in. As it turned out that was really only a factor for this year and next.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I don't blame anyone who was against the pick at the time. Bennett looked phenomenal and Draisaitl got utterly manhandled in the first round that year. It's been a stroke of luck that Drai has figured it out, and even then, this season is an outlier. He won't be shooting 22% next year.

Bennett couldn't even do a pull-up

that should've been the first sign of a failure

 

[Little Fury]

I watched him get absolutely wrecked and do nothing in the first round of the WHL playoffs that year. He had shown nothing to me at that point.

Good on him for figuring it out, but at that point, he skated like he had cement on his skates and was easily shut down by anyone who keyed in on him.

So did you learn your lesson about small sample sizes then?

 

[PBandJ]

So did you learn your lesson about small sample sizes then?

Nothing to learn. He got dismantled with ease and learned from it. Improved his skating enough to keep up and upped his compete level.

 

[SaltNPeca]

I watched him get absolutely wrecked and do nothing in the first round of the WHL playoffs that year. He had shown nothing to me at that point.

Good on him for figuring it out, but at that point, he skated like he had cement on his skates and was easily shut down by anyone who keyed in on him.

Nothing to learn. He got dismantled with ease and learned from it. Improved his skating enough to keep up and upped his compete level.

Disagree with your observation and "foot speed" narrative that has floated around this player for ages.

Bruce McCurdy did a very nice report on Leon in 2013 which I think explains his style (which can be mistaken for "slow & lazy"):
"The big centre (listed as 6’1, 209) was neither overly physically aggressive nor a speedster, but largely impressed this observer with his overall command of the game. The play went through his stick constantly, and for the most part, good or at least promising things developed thereafter. He showed a couple of bursts of what I would term “situational speed” but his A game is clearly one of controlling the play rather than pushing it. As I said to my voice recorder at one point, “When the puck is on Draisaitl’s stick, he owns it. Even if there’s a guy in his kitchen he’s in full control.” And later, “Very calm with the puck on his stick, not quite nonchalant but knows how much time he’s got, which in this league is a lot. Big and strong and can dangle the puck out of reach of the man who’s on him, pick his spot and distribute… A lot of subtle stuff, some little mistakes at the end of shifts, but with the puck on his stick he makes a lot of good decisions.”"

 

[Aerrol]

Draisaitl has never been "slow" its just it took him about 4 years to get up to speed.

He's an incredible skater now and so damn strong on his skates and can change his direction pretty good for a big guy.

For example his first goal last night.

He is an incredible skater now, but you're completely misremembering if you think he didn't have skating issues as a draft pick. He had decent top end speed, but his acceleration and edges left a lot to be desired. He's done an amazing job improving his skating since we've drafted him and he deserves full credit for doing so. The only other top draft pick I can think of who's done a similar job of improving their skating is Tavares, who was an even worse skater than Draisaitl on draft day and has since improved significantly (though is still worse).

 

[Tobias Kahun]

He is an incredible skater now, but you're completely misremembering if you think he didn't have skating issues as a draft pick. He had decent top end speed, but his acceleration and edges left a lot to be desired. He's done an amazing job improving his skating since we've drafted him and he deserves full credit for doing so. The only other top draft pick I can think of who's done a similar job of improving their skating is Tavares, who was an even worse skater than Draisaitl on draft day and has since improved significantly (though is still worse).

I never said he didnt have issues, just that he was never really slow, his acceleration and edge work was disgustingly bad. I agree with your point.

 

[Aerrol]

I never said he didnt have issues, just that he was never really slow, his acceleration and edge work was disgustingly bad. I agree with your point.

I misread your post as well. I thought "4 years to get up to speed" meant 4 years of development time to get used to the NHL game's speed, not...4 years figuratively to accelerate. I see we agree now, my bad.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I misread your post as well. I thought "4 years to get up to speed" meant 4 years of development time to get used to the NHL game's speed, not...4 years figuratively to accelerate. I see we agree now, my bad.

All good, and I don't think I was exaggerating with how long it took him either.

 

[Hynh]

I watched him get absolutely wrecked and do nothing in the first round of the WHL playoffs that year. He had shown nothing to me at that point.

Good on him for figuring it out, but at that point, he skated like he had cement on his skates and was easily shut down by anyone who keyed in on him.

I suppose you would have been much happier if he hadn't made the playoffs and faced the eventual Memorial Cup champs in round 1? Because if he doesn't set up the GTG and GWG in the tiebreaker game against Red Deer it's Haydn Fleury that's getting demolished.

 

[Little Fury]

Nothing to learn. He got dismantled with ease and learned from it. Improved his skating enough to keep up and upped his compete level.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

If Draisaitl can get to 50 goals, he'll be the first player go 50*/50* since Malkin did it in 2011/12

 

[Bryanbryoil]

100!

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

2nd in goals. 4th in points. Young, big, can play any position. Getting better every season. When can we start calling contract a steal?

 

[Pass the Saitl Sauce]

Draisaitl is making me proud of the drunk purchase at the auction during an oilers game vs the devils a couple years ago

 

[iCanada]

Draisaitl is making me proud of the drunk purchase at the auction during an oilers game vs the devils a couple years ago

You want to elaborate? ...or... are we just supposed to guess?

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

For 1st team all star votes is he a LW, C or RW? He should be 1st team All Star on the wing. He wont get 1st or 2nd because the stupid eastern hockey writers who love Toronto and dont stay up past 10 PM EST will place him in 3 different positions and split the vote 3 ways.

 

[Pass the Saitl Sauce]

You want to elaborate? ...or... are we just supposed to guess?

An autographed poster of drai that I was dead set on getting lol, ended up having to pay $600. Auction ended in second intermission though and draisaitl ended up scoring two goals after that including the game winner in OT

 

[iCanada]

An autographed poster of drai that I was dead set on getting lol, ended up having to pay $600. Auction ended in second intermission though and draisaitl ended up scoring two goals after that including the game winner in OT

Sounds like a nice piece. ^_^

 

[talitintti]

I think Draisaitl's magnificent development could partially be due to McDavid, but not in the way that main board trolls mean it.

Messier became a much better player because of playing with and learning from Gretzky and Jagr became a much better player because of training with and learning from Lemieux. There's a lot to learn from a generational talent and Drai sure seems like he's been soaking it in... either way, his development has been nothing sort of amazing.

 

[Spawn]

I think Draisaitl's magnificent development could partially be due to McDavid, but not in the way that main board trolls mean it.

Messier became a much better player because of playing with and learning from Gretzky and Jagr became a much better player because of training with and learning from Lemieux. There's a lot to learn from a generational talent and Drai sure seems like he's been soaking it in... either way, his development has been nothing sort of amazing.

There is probably something to this. Especially when you factor in that he seems to be incredibly driven as a player to work on what he has to work on to get better.