With every signing that drops in the NHL, Leon Draisaitl’s $14 million contract continues to look better and better.

The eight-year extension has only been in effect for one season, and as it currently stands, he’s already been knocked down to the fourth-highest AAV in the league, and over the next 12 months, he’s going to keep falling further down that list.

Once 2027-28 comes around, the likes of Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Nikita Kucherov, and Jason Robertson will all have new contracts, and they will all likely come with AAV’s higher than $14 million. Those names combined with Macklin Celebrini’s $18.8 million contract kicking in will put Draisaitl down to ninth on the list for highest-paid contracts in the league.

By the time Connor McDavid enters the final year of his current deal, the highest he’ll be on the board is 13th, which is pretty shocking.

This is the new-age NHL. With the cap expected to jump up between $7 million and $10 million per season, these contracts are only going to get more and more expensive.

This highlights one thing for me: teams should be hunting for max term at all times.

If you have a young player who is showing promise, the smart play is to pay them whatever it takes to get them to agree to a max-term contract as soon as you can.

Imagine if, back before the 2023-24 season, the Edmonton Oilers had just bucked up and given Evan Bouchard a long-term deal after he had his second straight 40-point season. Even if that would have cost $7 million per year, which was $3.1 million more than he ended up getting on his bridge deal, he would be one the best value deals in the league and wouldn’t even be........

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