Now that the Edmonton Oilers are out in Round 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, thanks to the Anaheim Ducks. The focus on the ice shifts to what happens off the ice. Mainly with number 97 and the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid.
As we saw last off-season, McDavid will once again be in the spotlight. Not because of a contract extension, but now that the contract extension kicks in, how will the team build around him to get better? Remember, he gave the Oilers a team-friendly deal at $12.5 million per season, but he put management on the clock by signing only a two-year deal.
NHL News: Connor McDavid Extends with the Edmonton Oilers
As McDavid stated after signing the deal, he remains committed to winning in Edmonton and believes it makes the most sense to sign for only two years.
“I obviously said I was committed to winning here, and I meant that when I said that, and two years makes a lot of sense,” McDavid said last October. “It gives us a chance to continue chasing down what we’ve been chasing down here with the core guys we have in here, and we have a little bit of money to work with, too.”
As we saw, GM Stan Bowman did not use that cap space wisely; more on that in a deep dive another time, but the window for the Oilers to win with McDavid on the team is slowly closing. As TSN Hockey Analyst Martin Biron was asked when he joined Jay Onrait on SportsCenter on Thursday, he was asked about what Bowman needs to do to keep McDavid from leaving in two years.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Anaheim Ducks Exploiting Edmonton Oilers Defensive Weaknesses
Jay Onrait: “Okay, here’s the question everyone’s going to be asking. Conor McDavid signed for two more seasons. What does Stan Bowman need to do to keep McDavid from hitting the free agent market in a couple of years?”
Martin Biron: “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Obviously, you got to look at goaltending. Tristan Jarry got two more years. Connor Ingram was the number one goalie down the stretch and in the playoffs. What are you going to do with goaltending? That has been the question for three years. Are you going to address that? What about defense? You’ve got some holes on defense. What about the depth at forward? You got some holes at the forward position.
You look at the cap projection and you see the Oilers have $16 million of cap space next year. Well, that’s great. No, that’s not great, because you’re losing eight free agents this summer. So it averages out to about $2 million per player. That’s not good enough. And the rest of the league has a ton of cap space, and they’re going to look at free agency this summer.
Free agency is not going to be a great crop this summer, but at the same point, you can still help yourself. Or if you want to trade for players, you need to either have draft picks or prospects, and the Oilers don’t have either of them. So how are you going to get better? How are you going to fix the depth on forward, the defense and the goaltending?
NHL Rumors: What is Connor McDavid Trying to Feel Out?
So for the Oilers, if you still want to win a cup, you’re not like the rest of the league, where maybe making the playoffs is good enough, or getting in the first round and winning a first round is good enough. They got to continue with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to say the Cup is our ultimate goal, and it’s going to be a really tough summer to try to get that done with the limited cap space and not having the currency to be able to make trades.”
So it will be interesting to fully hear what Connor McDavid has to say once he and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers address the media one final time. McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and others know it wasn’t good enough this season. The team was average at best. So there is a lot of work to do to ensure Connor McDavid remains with the Edmonton Oilers.
One thing is for sure: the talk surrounding Connor McDavid isn’t going away. It is only ramping up.
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