PuckPedia's Hart Levine (09/30/25)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 17 min 4 speakers 6 chapters transcribed 28 days ago

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What is the big‑money Kaprizov contract and why does it matter?

Bob Stauffer 0:00

Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. All right, it's 5.35 at Edmonton. You're listening to Oilers Now, Royal Pizza, Pizza Past, and so much more. Edmonton owned and operated for 55-plus years. They've also got catering options available for around $10 per person. Visit royalpizza.ca or contact your local store. There's 14 in the Edmonton region. for exact pricing and details. We'll also mention to you, we do the orders now. Prospect Report, it's brought to you by Reface Magic. Not just refacing, now offering complete custom kitchens. We do expect both Matt Savoy and Isaac Howard in the lineup tomorrow. David Tomaszek.

Bob Stauffer 0:43

and Noah Philp are dealing with illnesses. Do not expect them to fly to Seattle tomorrow. Bryn will host the show tomorrow. I'm traveling with Cam to go to the game to broadcast it. Pierre Lebrun, Rob Brown, John Shannon will be our guests tomorrow. We head off to the River Creek Resort and Casino hotline, and welcome back to the show, Puckpedia's Hart Levine. Hello, Hart. How are you doing? Doing great. How you doing? Not bad. Look, you do great work. I'm a big fan. I love following the stuff with Puckpedia on X. Give me your first take on this mammoth deal signed today by Kirill Kaprizov in Minnesota.

Hart Levine 1:31

Well, that's a big number. And, you know, good negotiating by the agent to just say no to that big offer of $16 million and wait to see what comes next.

How are rising cap numbers changing contract expectations for stars like McDavid and Eichel?

Hart Levine 1:41

But I think, you know, one thing, we just have to get used to the cap is going up so much each year. So, you know, we're preparing it, $17 to Leon Dreisaitl is $14 million, but... Next year, Leon's $14 million is really worth the equivalent of $15.25 when you consider the cap is going up another 9%. So, yeah, it's significant that he's going to get paid more than one of the top three centers in the league. But, you know, it's not $3 million more. It's more like $1.75 more in comparable cap dollars for next season. So, yeah, it's a big number, but I think we're going to have to get used to with the rapidly increasing cap, the numbers are going to go up and we're going to have a lot of ticker shock on deals.

Bob Stauffer 2:19

Are you surprised that this was the first? Put it this way. Do you expect an avalanche of guys now to be signed? I mean, just off the top of my head, I'm going to run through this. Obviously, Conor McDavid. I think that's a different situation. Elliott Friedman was on earlier today. He thinks the number is going to be lower than people think on a short-term deal. Brian Lawton was on earlier today. He thinks it's better for the Oilers if it's a short-term deal. Jack Eichel. Kyle Conner. Elliott thinks that Kyle Conner will be the second highest paid winger. in the National Hockey League that he'll be above the price point on both Mikko Rantanen and Mitch Marner. So you've got, you know, Eichel, Kyle Connor, Adrian Campe with the LA Kings.

Bob Stauffer 3:04

I'll throw another name at you that I'm watching closely because I think this guy's a really good general manager. That's Chris McFarland in Colorado, but I'm going to be intrigued to see what happens with Martin Natchez as well. But, you know, do you think this will start a bunch of guys getting signed? Because I know you do talk to different agents around the league, Hart.

Hart Levine 3:25

Yeah, I think it's definitely like a magnet that pulls guys towards it. Just like if you have a deal that seems very team-friendly, it can be a magnet that pulls deals the other way. We haven't really had any big-dollar, big-name extensions for next season where we know the cap is going to be another 9% higher. I think people were looking around and seeing what would be the first one, what would come next. because you don't want to sign a deal and then see deals come after that sort of make yours look not as good. I mean, you know, again, we could talk about tax advantages, but, you know, Marner and Rankin in that $12 million now, I know it's a year earlier, but that compared to Capri's up $17 million, now that's a big gap, and they're probably wincing a little bit when they saw that deal today.