It makes logical sense that a big share of the Oilers best contracts came in the summer of 2005 prior to their most successful season when they came to within an inch of winning the Stanley Cup. Over the 14 years that followed, the team only made the playoffs once. The Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish administrations spanned 7 seasons but you can read much more about their tenure on the Oilers worst contract list. Peter Chiarelli took over the reigns in 2015 shortly before the arrival of messiah Connor McDavid. Though Chiarelli may have only lasted 4 years in the gig and ended in disgrace, pistol Pete managed to autograph some of the Oilers best deals in the salary cap era (2 that ranked in the top 10 league-wide).
The list of good contracts does start to get thin towards the end and was challenging to complete. By contrast, the Oilers worst list was very easy to build with plenty of undesirable options to choose from. Despite all the disappointment that Oilers fans have suffered over the years, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. At the very least you got to enjoy McDavid more than the rest of us and have a legit contender (as of the time I’m writing this). While they do have two of the best contracts in the cap era (leading to a high value score and PTS/60 displayed on their rankings report card below), the average rank was in the bottom half because the list is too top heavy.
This was originally published in my 2020 book Hunting Bargains in a Salary Cap World, and has now been updated with new contracts. I will continue to update each team’s list every summer going forward. The rule is that only active contracts can move up or down. Expired deals cannot pass each other (with a few exceptions). The book is still available on Amazon, though some of the stats on active contracts are now out of date. You may yet find it interesting because there were detailed stat graphics that you won't find here. One thing you won't find here are entry level contracts because they all come from the same cookie cutter and require less skill at the negotiating table.
Updated June 28, 2024: Adjusted for $88M cap and added Hyman, Nuge, Bouchard.
1. Connor McDavid
Adjusted Cap Hit: $105.8M, $13.2M (avg)
Value Returned: $144.3M, $18.0M (avg)
% Earned: 136%
"Building a team to win the Stanley Cup was a constant point of discussion."
It’s hard to put a price on players this good, one of the league’s best talents, with very few peers worthy of direct comparison. $100M is a good place to start. The simple answer is to say that McDavid is worth the maximum amount you’re allowed to pay a player under the CBA, despite the fact that no player has ever made 20% of a team’s cap since the salary limit was introduced. Sidney Crosby took a discount (as a % of the cap), but also got a 12-year back-diving contract that has since been made illegal.
Chiarelli claimed he had offered Connor a higher salary on shorter term, but that McDavid decided to stretch it to 8 years to lower the cap hit and help the team build a champion around him. Oilers fans can say what they want about Peter Chiarelli, but his signature has been on a few magnificent contracts.
It’s a safe bet that Connor will be in the MVP conversation for the duration of this deal, and if the cap continues to grow, it will only become a greater bargain. They bought 4 years of unrestricted free agency from one of the game’s best players. What we do in life, echoes in eternity. Some called this a “hometown discount” when it made him the highest paid player in the league, and they might be right.
Update: Became one of the rare players to win playoff MVP without winning the Cup.
2. Leon Draisaitl
Adjusted Cap Hit: $73.4M, $9.2M (avg)
Value Returned: $116.7M, $14.6M (avg)
% Earned: 159%
"For me, it was never a question of going anywhere else or signing anywhere else. That never even crossed my mind. I wanted to stay in Edmonton, I feel very comfortable there. I think we have a great group of guys and we're building something special."
When Leon Draisaitl signed this 8-year extension in 2017, it seemed like a substantial overpayment based on comparables. Elite young centers like Barkov, Scheifele, and MacKinnon were getting paid much less, so there was some logical sense to the conclusion that Leon should have received a smaller sum. It was nominally the exact same salary that Steven Stamkos received as an unrestricted free agent one year earlier.
But it was perhaps Evgeny Kuznetsov who first shifted the market for young RFA centers 6 weeks earlier, followed by Ryan Johansen, then Leon. Draisaitl had a scoring regression in year one, only strengthening the argument of anyone saying he was overpaid. That all changed in year two when he became one of the league’s top scorers, playing over 22 minutes per night, topping 100 PTS.
Any debate about whether or not he’s a bargain has been settled. Anyone who wanted to argue that his production explosion should be credited to playing with Connor McDavid, inflating his numbers beyond what he should be capable of producing, lost the argument in year three when Leon was moved off McDavid’s line and continued to score at an elite level. Draisaitl is the real deal and became drastically underpaid, winning the Hart trophy in 2020.
3. Zach Hyman
Adjusted Cap Hit: $39.5M, $5.6M (avg)
Value Returned: $60.0M, $8.6M (avg)
% Earned: 152%
Zach Hyman scored at a 63-point pace in his final Toronto season, but he played a majority of his minutes as a support player with Marner and Matthews, so there had to be at least a little concern among potential suitors that his stats were inflated by that dynamic duo. If you dug deeper into those numbers (namely 5v5 expected goals for %), both Marner and Matthews were better with Hyman on the ice while Zach was close to the same when away from that pair. The Edmonton Oilers were in the market for a high-end support player for their superstars, and quickly pounced on the former Leafs winger.
His first season with Edmonton brought a slight regression is his scoring rate (54 PTS in 76 GP) but the longer he and McDavid built their chemistry, that output trended upwards, especially the goal scoring, potting 27, 36 and 54 goals in the first 3 years (also adding 15 goals in the playoffs on the way to the Cup final). Perhaps this should be discounted because it is arguably substantially enhanced by McDavid residuals (and there’s some risk on the back half), but there may also be a lot more goals coming.
4. Evan Bouchard
Adjusted Cap Hit: $8.0M, $4.0M (avg)
Value Returned: $20.6M, $10.3M (avg)
% Earned: 258%
Evan Bouchard scored 40 PTS in the final year of his ELC, which along with his ice time was valued at $3.9M by my expected free agent value algorithm, but he was beneath Tyson Barrie on the power play depth chart for most of the season. Then once Barrie was traded and Bouchard moved into that role, the whole unit was immediately better, closing the season on fire. That’s why my prediction for his contract that summer was $4.8M instead of the algorithm value, but once again my modelling was closer than my common sense. When this deal began, the young defender picked up exactly where he left off on his way to scoring 82 PTS in the regular season and 32 more in the playoffs.
Only 2 players in the salary cap era scored more points in a playoff, Malkin and McDavid (who has done it twice). Rest assured there was likely a promise made similar to Darnell Nurse for his next deal, which is going to be at least double the current rate. Draisaitl is also due to expire the same summer, so that projected cap space could disappear quickly. After what we saw in the 2024 playoffs, Evan is worth a considerable sum of money.
5. Chris Pronger
Adjusted Cap Hit: $56.8M, $11.4M (avg)
Value Returned: $51.9M, $10.4M (avg)
% Earned: 91%
“There's nothing in the game he cannot do. There's nothing in the game that he does not excel at.”
The end of the 2005 lockout could not have gone better for the Oilers, who managed to steal Chris Pronger from the St. Louis Blues and signed him to a 5-year contract. Provisions in the new CBA made him a restricted free agent at age 30, but he still elicited at an expensive price tag that became more reasonable as the cap grew.
The big defenseman played a key role in Edmonton advancing to the Stanley Cup final, scoring 21 PTS in 24 GP in the 2006 playoffs. It all came crashing down to earth in year two, when Pronger demanded a trade and was promptly moved to Anaheim for a package of prospects and draft picks. It would be more than a decade before the Oilers returned to the playoffs, where Pronger went on to win a Stanley Cup in Anaheim.
There is a great “what if” question for Oilers fans, what if Chris Pronger had played out the remaining term of this contract in Edmonton? There would have been more playoff appearances than what they got, that’s for sure. There are some compelling conspiracy theories in circulation about Pronger’s demand to leave the city, but none are confirmed.
6. Taylor Hall
Adjusted Cap Hit: $50.9M, $7.3M (avg)
Value Returned: $52.3M, $7.5M (avg)
% Earned: 103%
“When they said seven years I didn’t blink. I’m comfortable being here for that long.”
“I'm excited that I'm going to be able to play for a team that wants me. It's not that Edmonton didn't want me, but I certainly do feel a bit slighted by the whole thing.”
Taylor Hall was a former first overall draft pick who scored 95 PTS in his first 126 NHL GP (62-point pace), before signing a 7-year extension. It was a longer version of the deal inked by fellow 1st overall pick John Tavares one year earlier, but more money (despite playing the wing).
Everything looked good after year one of this contract, when Hall posted 80 PTS, but injury problems in year two set him back. He had a knee injury early in the season, returned too soon, then cracked his ankle and lost more than a month. Hall then followed that up with a disappointing 65-point season in year three that led to one of the worst trades of the decade when he moved to New Jersey for Adam Larsson.
It wasn’t looking like such a bad trade when Hall dropped down to 53 PTS in his first year with the Devils and the Oilers won their first playoff series in a decade, but that all changed in 2018 when Hall jumped up to 93 PTS and won the Hart trophy. Now it will be remembered in perpetuity as one of the worst trades ever made.
Taylor should have been able to hit a home run in free agency when this expired, but fell victim to the Covid crunch and landed in Buffalo on a 1-year term.
7. Darnell Nurse
Adjusted Cap Hit: $12.1M, $6.0M (avg)
Value Returned: $17.2M, $8.6M (avg)
% Earned: 143%
“Can’t keep this team together. There’s no chance, the team that we just had, I can’t keep this team together because of salary cap. Some people might think, ‘That’s good, get rid of some of those people.’ But it’s the cap world. I’m going to try to make the team the best that I can. I know we got a really good nucleus.”
Darnell Nurse signed a 2-year bridge deal following his ELC (which you can read about below) and when that expired, Holland elected to re-sign their best defenseman to another 2-year bridge rather than a long-term extension (which he inked after this deal, and you can read about that one on Edmonton’s worst contracts page). Though it very well could have been Nurse himself that chose another bridge, whether he wanted to test the UFA market or the Oilers simply didn’t have enough cap space to satisfy the price he needed to stay long-term.
Whatever the story, the Oilers got a 46-point, 25-minute D-man for substantially less than that’s supposed to cost. Granted, that discount could have been obtained by Holland promising to make it up to him on the next one, which may prove to be a greater liability than this surplus. I’ll under-pay you by $5M now, then over-pay you by $20M on the next. If this directly led to that, then perhaps this was actually a net liability.
8. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Adjusted Cap Hit: $49.1M, $7.0M (avg)
Value Returned: $50.2M, $7.2M (avg)
% Earned: 102%
"You can't find anyone in our organization that questions this deal. This was a complete no-brainer for us to bring Ryan in. He's been all-in for us since I've arrived here. That very much continues.”
When Craig MacTavish signed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to this extension, he walked over to the filing cabinet, grabbed Taylor Hall’s contract, and put it in the photocopy machine. The negotiation must have been pretty straight forward, requiring only a willingness from Nuge to give up 3 potential years of unrestricted free agency.
Ryan would have his ups and downs, but eventually evolved into a quality 2-way center. Injuries certainly contributed to some of the lows, but Nuge managed to jump up to 69 PTS in year five, returning strong value on the back half. The center has scored 60 PTS per 82 GP on the deal and averaging 19.4 minutes per game. It’s worth pointing out that this is the only MacTavish contract in the best 15, but his fingerprints are all over the Oilers worst list.
9. Darnell Nurse
Adjusted Cap Hit: $7.1M, $3.5M (avg)
Value Returned: $14.4M, $7.2M (avg)
% Earned: 205%
“At first, I thought it would be done before camp, and then once camp started, it probably went a little faster. I was losing my mind a little bit sitting at home and not being on the ice.”
Darnell Nurse had not yet fully developed the offensive component of his game when he signed this treaty at the end of his ELC. The negotiation was contentious, as the young defenseman went unsigned into training camp, but once Josh Morrissey inked a 2-year bridge, Nurse agreed to similar terms the very next day (but with an extra $50K in salary).
This was a fair price for what he produced in 2018, but his value quickly exceeded his cost, jumping up to 41 PTS in year one of his new deal. Unlike the Klefbom ticket, Edmonton was unable to lock Nurse into a long-term contract that sold UFA years at a discount.
10. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Adjusted Cap Hit: $42.0M, $5.2M (avg)
Value Returned: $57.5M, $7.2M (avg)
% Earned: 137%
The Nuge recorded a decidedly unspectacular 35 PTS in 52 GP season at the conclusion of his 2nd contract, but as a center effective at both ends of the ice sheet still had the potential to solicit significant demand on the open market. That’s why my prediction was $8.6M, but Nuge never reached the open market, opting to sign an 8-year extension for substantially less money than me (or my algorithm) would have predicted. Being that far off a contract prediction disturbs me, and I’m still looking at $5.1M with confusion. Yet, I’m still reasonably certain an offer that big would have been on the table 30 days later, but evidently he really wanted to stay in Edmonton. Either that’s the best Holland could do and Nuge just said yes, or he actually wanted a discount because he believed the team was on the verge of a championship, and a cheaper deal would help them acquire a better supporting staff.
However they arrived at that price, year two produced a miraculous 104-point campaign, crushing his previous career best of 69 (insert joke). He did regress back to the high 60s in year two, but also added 47 PTS in 53 playoff games over the first 3 years, coming within a goal of the Stanley Cup. The back half still has some risk, especially if Draisaitl and/or McDavid decide to leave. But if they stay and Nuge ages well, this could be moved higher in future updates.
11. Tyson Barrie
Adjusted Cap Hit: $4.1M, $4.1M (avg)
Value Returned: $9.0M, $9.0M (avg)
% Earned: 220%
“It wasn’t about money this year.”
Tyson Barrie surely had high expectations for what he could solicit on the UFA after back-to-back 60+ point pace seasons in Colorado. Then he was traded to Toronto, where he dropped down to 46-point pace and was considered a dissapointment, especially considering the Leafs traded a discounted Nazem Kadri to obtain him. That’s not how you want to go about entering unrestricted free agency, especially in a pandemic with a flat cap. I’d love to know what was the best offer he received, because I’m quite certain it was a lot more than this. Instead, my assumption is that Barrie bet on himself, and what he could do on the Edmonton power play.
It was a smart bet, as he scored at a 70-point pace, the highest total in his NHL career, leading all defensemen in scoring (with assists from McDavid and Draisaitl). Great bargain for Edmonton, but it didn’t lead to the jackpot offer he had to hoping for, or what you might expect the leading scoring defenseman to get paid. That being said, $13.5M ain’t bad for a lottery ticket. At close to $40M in career earnings, I think he’s going to be okay post-retirement. Let’s not shed any tears over his lost opportunity. He simply missed out on private jet money.
12. Jarret Stoll
Adjusted Cap Hit: $0.9M, $0.9M (avg)
Value Returned: $7.4M, $7.4M (avg)
% Earned: 824%
“We were absolutely rolling when we went into those playoffs. It took us until the 80th or maybe 81st game to clinch, but we were healthy, we got some breaks, we had unbelievable goaltending and timely goals. That’s what it takes.”
Prior to the signing of this contract, Stoll had only played 72 games in the NHL, scoring just 11 PTS. During the lost season, he scored 38 PTS in 66 GP for the Oilers farm team in the AHL. It made perfectly logical sense that he solicited close to the league minimum when he signed a new deal at the end of the lockout.
Then at age 23, Stoll made a giant leap in production, up to 68 PTS, adding an additional 10 PTS in the playoffs as the Oilers advanced to the Cup final. That turned out to be the best year of his career, never topping 68 PTS again. Jared inked a new 2-year deal when this expired for a higher price that would have qualified for this list if it was the top 20 contracts.
13. Ryan Smyth
Adjusted Cap Hit: $14.7M, $7.3M (avg)
Value Returned: $18.0M, $9.0M (avg)
% Earned: 123%
"It's a really good feeling. Now we can just go and play hockey and not worry about the negotiations part of it"
Ryan Smyth scored 23 goals and 59 PTS in 82 GP prior to the 2005 lockout and did not play pro hockey during the work stoppage. When the new CBA was signed, it took a few weeks to get his signature on a new ticket, but he settled on a carbon copy of what Alex Mogilny signed in New Jersey a few weeks earlier.
Smyth was a heart and soul player who scored 72 goals in 146 GP (40-goal pace) in the regular season on this contract, while helping them advance to the Stanley Cup final. Edmonton wasn’t willing to meet his asking price on the next deal, so they shipped him off as a rental to the Islanders for prospects and a first round pick (which they whiffed on, taking Alex Plante).
Smyth hit unrestricted free agency and cashed in with a big contract from Colorado, which you can read about on the Avs worst contracts list. Smyth began to decline at age 31 and never again surpassed 60 PTS.
14. Stuart Skinner
Adjusted Cap Hit: $7.9M, $2.6M (avg)
Value Returned: $20.1M, $6.7M (avg)
% Earned: 245%
When Stuart Skinner supplanted Jack Campbell, Ken Holland knew within 2 months that they had a quality NHL goaltender, locking him into a 3-year extension in December before the price could get driven up any higher. This treaty was earmarked for this list before a single game was played, and depending on the returns it may get moved up or removed entirely in future updates. Year one started rough until the coach was fired, lighting a fire under the team leading to an extended stretch of team success with outstanding goaltending. He did stumble early in the playoffs, but ultimately was a net positive getting to the Stanley Cup final and game 7.
15. Evander Kane
Adjusted Cap Hit: $2.2M, $2.2M (avg)
Value Returned: $4.7M, $4.7M (avg)
% Earned: 210%
"I'm excited"
Evander Kane was unceremoniously terminated by the San Jose Sharks for the grievance offense of violating Covid protocols, after not being able to terminate him for the alleged offense of gambling on hockey games. I can’t say for certain how many suitors there were when he became a mid-season free agent, but am positive he received a high volume of phone calls. Problem is, once the season has already started, most teams are up against the salary cap. He could have had many suitors, but no good teams could offer him a big package. The opportunity to play with McDavid and/or Draisaitl before becoming a free agent in the summer was as good as it gets for a guy who owes child support.
Oilers fans were not disappointed, as he scored 39 PTS in 43 GP, then scored 17 PTS in the playoffs as the team advanced to the conference final. The team was in a nosedive when Kane arrived, and he immediately reversed their misfortune. He became what they hoped Milan Lucic would be. The Oilers rewarded him with $20M in the summer. Kane’s ex-wife can count on those alimony payments for at least 4 more years.
16. Shawn Horcoff
Adjusted Cap Hit: $19.0M, $6.3M (avg)
Value Returned: $23.5M, $7.8M (avg)
% Earned: 124%
"I'm ecstatic, happy to be in Edmonton for three more years"
Due to CBA rules, Shawn Horcoff was still a restricted free agent when his contract expired at age 27, but was in a great position for arbitration, having just scored 73 PTS, plus 19 more in the playoffs. Kevin Lowe avoided arbitration by getting Shawn’s autograph on a nearly identical deal as Henrik Sedin had just signed 2 weeks earlier in Vancouver.
In 213 GP on this treaty they got 154 PTS (59 PTS per 82 GP). It would have made more sense from the player’s perspective had he taken the fast track to free agency, but it all worked out in the end, as Shawn banked $33M on his next ticket, which you can read about on the Oilers worst contracts list. He never came close to 50 PTS again.
17. Ryan Strome
Adjusted Cap Hit: $6.8M, $3.4M (avg)
Value Returned: $11.1M, $5.6M (avg)
% Earned: 163%
“The only thing I voiced to him is that I really believe in what’s going on in Edmonton. There are so many good people and players there that good things are bound to happen, and I want to be a part of it.”
More was expected of Ryan Strome when he came to Edmonton as the only piece in the Jordan Eberle trade, but he failed to improve on his lacklustre production with the Oilers. Chiarelli didn’t have any problems retaining the center on a 2-year bridge deal close to the price of his qualifying offer, as the young center understood he needed to prove his worth.
In year one with just 2 PTS in his first 18 GP, Strome was traded to the Rangers for future buyout Ryan Spooner (a trade that became one of the nails in the coffin of Chiarelli’s Oilers tenure). Eventually Strome would be paired with Artemi Panarin and caught fire, scoring 59 PTS in 70 GP.
18. Shawn Horcoff
Adjusted Cap Hit: $2.0M, $2.0M (avg)
Value Returned: $8.4M, $8.4M (avg)
% Earned: 412%
“Let’s be honest. You come all this way, you want to win the Stanley Cup.”
Shawn Horcoff had accumulated 4 seasons of NHL experience prior to the 2005 lockout, peaking at 40 PTS in 2004. Upon his return, the center accepted a 1-year deal at the same price that Scott Hartnell, Anson Carter, Nik Antropov, Luc Robitaille and Trent Hunter had all taken in the previous 3 weeks.
This was fair value for his past production, but like Stoll, Shawn returned from the lost season on fire, scoring 73 PTS, plus 19 more in the playoffs on the way to the Cup final. This would turn out to be the best year of his career by far, never again coming within 20 PTS of that total. His salary would continue to rise while his production continued to drop.
19. Ales Hemsky
Adjusted Cap Hit: $1.8M, $1.8M (avg)
Value Returned: $7.1M, $7.1M (avg)
% Earned: 390%
“It’s a lot of maybes. If we don’t lose that first game when we were up 3-0… If Rolly doesn’t get hurt…One game decides if everyone will cheer for you, or if everyone will forget. Edmonton was crazy. Then we lost, we come back home, and summer starts.”
Ales Hemsky accumulated 130 GP in the NHL prior to the 2005 lockout, scoring at a 40-point pace. He probably should have earned more than $900K when he signed his new contract, but relative to the new deals signed by his teammates (and the restrictive nature of the $39M salary cap), this amount is defensible.
The similarity to Horcoff and Stoll is astounding, as Hemsky came out of the lockout to score 77 PTS in 81 GP (with an addition 17 PTS in the playoffs), smashing his previous best, and a number that he would never surpass again in his career. There was $24.6M waiting for Alex when this contract expired, which would capture a dishonorable distinction of the most games played on a contract in the salary cap era with zero playoff appearances (at least when my book was published in 2020).
20. Mike Smith
Adjusted Cap Hit: $1.6M, $1.6M (avg)
Value Returned: $5.6M, $5.6M (avg)
% Earned: 342%
Mike Smith’s days as a highly paid goaltender ended at age 36 in Calgary, leaving for division rival Edmonton at a significantly reduced salary. He posted an .898 SV% in his first Oilers season splitting starts with Mikko Koskinen, opting to re-sign on another 1-year contract at an even cheaper price. That’s when magic struck and he enjoyed the second best season of his career at age 38 versus the Canadian division in the 2021 pandemic schedule (where Edmonton was feasting on the bottom feeders). Father Time took the “L” for that one.
Bonus Goodness
21. Stuart Skinner
Adjusted Cap Hit: $1.6M, $0.8M (avg)
Value Returned: $6.6M, $3.3M (avg)
% Earned: 428%
Stuart Skinner had amassed 1 game of NHL experience when his entry level contract expired, which generally commands a near-minimum price tag. Year one only brought 13 additional NHL games to his resume, but stayed busy in the AHL. Then by year two when the Mike Smith Mikko Koskinen experiment ended, he was the lead candidate to back-up newly acquired Jack Campbell (which you can read about on their worst contract list). When Campbell faltered, Skinner was thrust into the primary role, and performed well with a .913 SV% in 50 GP.
22. Dennis Grebeshkov
Adjusted Cap Hit: $2.4M, $2.4M (avg)
Value Returned: $5.7M, $5.7M (avg)
% Earned: 243%
"We see the upside in the player we're acquiring. We see this as a long-term upgrade."
Kevin Lowe traded Marc-Andre Bergeron and a 3rd round pick to the Islanders in 2007 to obtain Denis Grebeshkov, who had only accumulated 33 games of NHL experience before defecting back to Russian in 2006. The young defenseman would return to North America, earning a regular roster spot with the Oilers, but he only averaged 16.9 minutes of ice time, scoring 18 PTS.
The two sides would agree to this 1-year extension in April, after which Grebeshkov commenced a radical transformation into a 40-point player averaging 21.2 minutes. The Oilers got nearly 40 PTS from the blueline for 40 cents on the dollar. The bad news for Edmonton, is that he never came close to that point total again, and they doubled his salary on the next contract, which turned out to be a bad deal (after which Denis returned to the KHL).
23. Sam Gagner
Adjusted Cap Hit: $4.4M, $4.4M (avg)
Value Returned: $8.6M, $8.6M (avg)
% Earned: 194%
Sam Gagner was a full-time NHL player as an 18-year-old, growing into a 50-point player by the end of his 2nd contract that expired at age 22. The young center amassed 5 full seasons in the NHL by this juncture, taking a 1-year deal at a cheaper price tag than his production warranted. Perhaps a pending work stoppage and CBA recalibration in the summer of 2012 had something to do with management’s offer. What the team received was the very best season of Gagner’s entire career during the lockout shortened 2013 campaign, when he scored at a 65-point pace, earning himself a significant pay raise and eventually a trade out of Edmonton.