Draisaitl’s top NHL contract: World’s top earner Draisaitl under the radar

For several decades, it was considered almost impossible that a German would be the best-paid professional in the world, at least in ice hockey. But that is exactly what Germany’s top star Leon Draisaitl has now achieved with his new NHL mega contract with the Edmonton Oilers. The 28-year-old exceptional striker will receive 112 million dollars – 14 million per year – from next year for a further eight years. The best German ice hockey player to date will then be 37 years old.

“It’s now up to me to give something back,” said Draisaitl after the announcement of the deal, which was remarkable at least by NHL standards, on Tuesday (local time). The son of former national striker Peter Draisaitl was – quite untypically for a Cologne native – never a man of big words and probably never will be. The scandal-free Draisaitl is blessed with incredible talent, but year after year he prefers to work hard on his skills during the summer break rather than increase his popularity in Germany. Because here in Germany, at least in public, he still flies somewhat under the radar.

Superstar status in North America much greater

Even though he was only the second team athlete ever to be named Germany’s Sportsman of the Year in 2020 after basketball icon Dirk Nowitzki, his superstar status in North America is much greater. At that time, Draisaitl’s exceptional performances had not gone unnoticed in Germany either. Four years ago, he was named the league’s top scorer and both the most valuable and best player in the league and thus in the world.

“There is hardly a player in the world who can play hockey like him,” said Oilers general manager Stan Bowman, explaining the contract. Draisaitl, who is engaged to Canadian actress Celeste Desjardins, is a regular guest at the NHL All-Star Games, delivers more than 100 points every year and has already scored more than 50 goals per season for the Oilers three times. As with Nowitzki in the NBA, only the longed-for NHL title would take Draisaitl to another level in Germany.

This year, the Oilers were close to winning the Stanley Cup, but lost the final series against Florida 3:4 – partly because Draisaitl was injured in the decisive playoff phase. “We obviously haven’t finished the job yet,” said Draisaitl. He and the team are pursuing the “ultimate goal, and we all know what that is.” The team will attack again next season. Only then will Draisaitl’s new contract start. And that could make the undertaking more difficult in the eight years that follow.

Salary cap as a problem on the longed-for road to the Stanley Cup?

In the NHL, there is a salary cap that each team is not allowed to exceed each year. And the Oilers have an even bigger star: captain Connor McDavid, who is generally considered to be the best player in the world at the moment. Draisaitl’s buddy is set to extend his contract next year and will almost certainly replace the German as the world’s top earner. This means that, in theory, there is less money available for the rest of the squad. But fears that the team will become significantly worse because more key players will have to be sold are unlikely to come true. In fact, the salary cap is currently increasing every year.

Since this is linked to the league’s annual revenue and the NHL is thriving thanks to the lifting of the betting ban and booming new locations in Las Vegas and Seattle, significant increases are expected in the coming years.

When it comes to salaries, ice hockey stars are now lagging far behind

Nevertheless, the salary cap introduced in the league in 2005 is also a reason why the differences in salary between the top stars and players in the second and third tier are not as huge as in other sports. The times when even good German players in the NHL earned more money than top German soccer stars for years are over, given the exploding revenues in the English Premier League or the European Champions League.

In the other US professional leagues, the salaries for the absolute top stars are also significantly higher. The highest-paid athlete in the world is a baseball player: The Japanese Shohei Ohtani earns an incredible $700 million over ten years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. And in the NBA, basketball stars also earn significantly more than Draisaitl. The German national player Franz Wagner – whose sporting value is hardly comparable to that of Draisaitl – collects just $40 million annually in Orlando.

There are two other reasons for the differences between the NHL and NBA: The NBA is much easier to market worldwide than ice hockey, which is actively excluded from large parts of the world for natural reasons. Secondly, the increased income has to be distributed among significantly fewer players. A basketball team has about half as many players as an ice hockey team.