default-cbs-image

When the Edmonton Oilers locked up Connor McDavid with a record $100 million contract extension early in July, they knew they would still have the Leon Draisaitl negotiations to tackle.

The team will commit more than $12 million per season to McDavid after the 2017-18 campaign, of course, but it also shipped Jordan Eberle out of town in a presumed pursuit of salary cap relief. And while Draisaitl, the 21-year-old restricted free agent and 29-goal scorer as Edmonton's No. 2 center in the Oilers' 2016-17 playoff run, remains unsigned as August approaches, Edmonton hasn't hesitated to talk up its young forward amid contract discussions.

"I'm confident we're going to see Leon in an [Oilers] uniform," coach Todd McLellan said Wednesday, according to NHL.com. "We want him to be there, he wants to be there, and it's just a matter of getting a few things done over the summer."

Logic says McLellan is exactly right. The Oilers should want Draisaitl, whose presence is as much a complement to McDavid as it is added proof Edmonton has itself an elite, youthful core. And Draisaitl should want the Oilers, who didn't flinch at doling out big bucks to their other star and are trending in the right direction even in spite of cap restrictions. But the key words in McLellan's hopeful comments were "a few things," as in the few monumental things Edmonton and Draisaitl have to get done over the summer.

Things like the length and annual average of a long-term extension for the free agent.

There hasn't been much public movement on the negotiations front since the 2017 market opened July 1, and while that's generally to be expected, there are also rumblings that Draisaitl and Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli are still a ways from finding common ground.

HockeyBuzz.com has elicited mixed reviews as an online rumor mill, but its report Wednesday that contract negotiations are at an "impasse" in the wake of other players' recent big-money deals (see: Evgeny Kuznetsov) and Draisaitl's transition to a new agent are in line with other whispers, like an SB Nation suggestion the Oilers forward is seeking something in the ballpark of $9 million per season and an early-July Edmonton Journal column that noted how the team had "a thorny problem" in evaluating Draisaitl's worth.

Only time will tell whether the Oilers agree Draisaitl is worth a hefty chunk of change, succumb to demands that he is or even find a way to maneuver enough money in the first place. For now, the clock continues to tick.