Oilers rival superstar demanding more salary than Draisaitl, believes he's better
Photo credit: Imagn Images
On a recent episode of 32 Thoughts Podcast, Insider Elliotte Friedman insinuated that pending-free agent Jack Eichel believes he should be paid more than Leon Draisaitl.
Jack Eichel looks to make case as top-three player in the NHL
You know what a player told me? A guy who's not on either team.
He wonders if the fierce head to head rivalry between Edmonton and Vegas has Eichel looking at Draisaitl's number.
He wondered about the Oilers rivalry with the Golden Knights, and those two teams legitimately can't stand each other. And he just wondered if Eichel looks at Draisaitl and says, that's where I am.
- Elliotte Friedman
He wonders if the fierce head to head rivalry between Edmonton and Vegas has Eichel looking at Draisaitl's number.
He wondered about the Oilers rivalry with the Golden Knights, and those two teams legitimately can't stand each other. And he just wondered if Eichel looks at Draisaitl and says, that's where I am.
- Elliotte Friedman
Jack Eichel looking to surpass Leon Draisaitl's $14M AAV
It seems that we're right in the middle of an inflated period of rising salaries, based largely on the fact that the salary cap will have risen to $113.5M in 2027-28, from the current $88M, an increase of $25.5M.
In light of this, one main factor that a team considers when signing a player is his comparability to similar players in the league. Eichel clearly believes he's better that Draisaitl, who is set to earn $14M AAV in 2025-26.
The argument of who deserves more becomes even more convoluted when you include Krill Kaprisov's recent signing of $17M AAV, and Mitch Mariner's $12M, a player who's scored 102, 99 and 97 points in his career.
The most points Jack Eichel has scored is 94 with Vegas, and his second most 82 with Buffalo.
Jack Eichel's production has been fairly consistent since being drafted 2nd-overall by Buffalo in 2015, as has Draisaitl's, who was drafted 3rd-overall the year before.
Except, Draisaitl's points-per-game in the regular season is 1.47, and 1.21 in the post-season, while Eichel's is 1.08 and 0.99 respectively. The Oilers' superstar has the upper hand over Eichel by far prodcution-wise.
Trophy-wise, Leon has quite a bit more also (4), while Jack has won only one, though none are bigger than his Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2022-23.
Who of Draisaitl and Eichel will earn more will ultimately be decided by their respective GMs, though from this writer's perspective, Leon is far more valuable to his team.
Before arriving in Vegas three years ago, Eichel played on a sub-par Buffalo Sabres team that did not qualify for the post-season, with him as its top player.
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