I disagree, Skinner looked decent last year and is the younger of the two. Campbell has looked pathetic outside of like a month last year.

fire em both into the sun, i’ll play goalie rest of the season

“It’s Cup or bust for this group,” said McDavid. “With where everyone is at in their career, that’s the expectation. So there is just that empty feeling you’re left with.

“It’s also understanding how far away it is just to be back in the very same position. We all have to train all summer long, go through training camp, play 82 regular season games just to get back to the very same spot.

“A lot of work goes into just getting to that position. And here we find ourselves a year away again.”

McDavid is now eight years into his NHL career, with three seasons left on his contract in Edmonton. He’s accomplished all there is to accomplish individually, but hasn’t come close to winning a Stanley Cup.

At 26, he says there is still time for patience — “I’m 26 years old, I have lots of great years ahead. I’m not worried about time” — but the core of this team is also getting to the point where the future is now.

So the team chose bust?

I mean. Doesn't matter what team he goes to. He's gonna have the same problems. Especially when you command the highest cap hit in league.

In a salary cap era it's extremely rare you can get paid maximum dollar and still win.

Looking back on recent dynasties. Chicago, Pittsburgh, L.A all had core players leave at least some money on the table so other pieces could be brought in. Tampa and Vegas recently abused LTIR. Cap management is so important.

After they won they took the big deals. Now the trend is players getting these huge contracts without winning anything and then they complain they want to be part of a winning team.

With how much parity there is in the league and so many teams you can't rationally expect to have both. The odds are just not there, no matter how good you are.


With that being said look at Edmonton's situation. When you see Nurse get a long term 9.25 million deal it's kind of over already with that philosophy. That was an absolute dagger to winning culture in Edmonton, even if the precedent was set with Seth Jones and other defenders that year.

After seeing that Mcdavid probably said the hell with the hometown discount. When Draisaitl is up for renewal he is swinging for the fences too. They won't say it publicly but you know Draisaitl is pissed to see that overpaid bum making more than him so he will be out to avenge that either in Edmonton or elsewhere.

As soon as one player shows how selfish they are that entire philosophy unravels and management has to be blamed for that. You need to create a culture to keep salaries at a winning level.

I understand careers are short and I never hate on a guy for getting paid but the idea that a player can get every last dollar and still get mad when they don't win is laughable. The league is so competitive you need to make a finnancial sacrifice if you want to win and you need other key players to buy into that philosopy too.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 8 2023 08:23pm

what % of the cap were crosby/malkin/letang when they won? same for toews/kane/keith. cant remember when their contracts kicked in tho

Wish I could remember. I want to look into it now. I just remember them leaving some money on the table and then after those guys won they took bigger contracts and the team declined as a result.

/e so I looked.


Kane/Toews made 6.3 until 2015 (11.09%) and then both took long term 10.5 million deals (15.22%). Kieth was making 5.5 on a 13 year deal, which is crazy. The cap was kept low because the first few years featured huge signing bonuses. Don't think you can do that anymore.

9.75% cap hit.


Crosby has been making 8.7 for what seems like forever. 14.5% at time of signing back in 2013. Could have been a lot more seeing he was the face of the league at that time. The best comparable was Ovechkin, who made over 9.5 million at that time.

Malkin made 9.5 million signing a contract around the time they won for 14.77% cap hit. So similar to Crosby. He could have probably got more too. On a side not he won the Smythe in 2009 with a 2.52% cap hit LOL. what value.

Letang was an 11.28% cap hit during the time they won two cups at $7.25 million. Money left on the table too.


There is no doubt both of those cores signed for cheaper than market rate in order to win.



Mcdavid is currently at 12.5 and 16.67% of the cap hit. So he is far more expensive than any of those core guys.

Draisaitl signed at 8.25 in 2017 which was only a 11.33% cap hit. Very team friendly deal. I remember it being seen as a risk by some at the time but to me and a lot of others it was obvious he was on the verge of breaking out into a superstar.

He certainly took a team friendly deal.



Mcdavid is definately on the higher side of all of these contracts but he also signed the deal when he was already established as arguably the best player in the league at the time so you have to take that into consideration.

Personally I think anything over 15% is too high no matter how good you are.


Interestingly Matthews comes in a bit lower at 15.87% (at time of signing) despite being paid 725k more than Mcdavid.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 8 2023 09:03pm

crosby kicked in 2013-2014 @ 8.7m
malkin kicked in 2014-2015 @ 9.5m
letang kicked in 2014-2015 @ 7.25m
25.45m total

cap in 2014-2015 was 69m

thats 36% of the cap

not sure who their 4th highest was, fleury? 5m to 14/15, 5.5m after
30.45m

44% of the cap in 14/15

pens then won in 16 & 19.


i know this an oil thread, but leafs core 4 are currently 44% of the cap lmao.


first time i actually looked in this. shows how meaningful this excuse is

This post was edited by partank on Nov 8 2023 08:50pm

Shit now we both did math lol but at least there is different information to compare;

How can you say they left money on the table when the cap% are similar to the high cap hit %s today

Pens won in 09 on their bridge deals or whatever. Sometimes you hit those, sometimes you dont

This post was edited by partank on Nov 8 2023 09:15pm