NHL Rumors: The Slow Play Continues as Connor McDavid Thinks Long-Term

Things are definitely interesting between the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid

B/R Open Ice: Frank Seravalli talking about the Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid, and where things may go.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“McDavid has mentioned that he wants to play it slowly. But beyond that, I think Connor McDavid is, to the best of my understanding, thinking long term here.

Yes, having gone to two straight Stanley Cup Finals, getting as close as any team could without winning a Stanley Cup, the Edmonton Oilers are ready to roll this year. They’re ready to have another shot, particularly with an injection of youth, youth from Matt Savoie and Ike Howard into their lineup.

But what’s the next iteration? And we talked a little bit about that on last week’s NHL Insider Notebook here on the BR app, as well as streaming on YouTube, about that idea of what do the future iterations of the Edmonton Oilers look like? He wants to have the best long-term chance to win, and you could argue that with a bit of an aging core to this Edmonton team, that maybe that in Edmonton isn’t the spot.

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So he’s going to go through this discernment process, and maybe on the other end of it, he signs a three or a four year deal, or maybe he gets to the end of this upcoming season and says, ‘Hey, we just got to another Cup Final, or we just won the Stanley Cup, or whatever it might be, I think the best chance to win long term is still with this core, with the only other place on planet earth that I can play with Leon Draisaitl. I want to do it in Edmonton, and maybe I’m actually going to sign for eight years.’

So, there’s this push and pull. But I think the interesting part is, there’s nothing that Edmonton can show on their own end unless Ike Howard and Matt Savoie are cemented in the top six, or perhaps even middle six this season and have monster years that are probably going to put some of those concerns, question marks or fears at bay for Conor McDavid to answer and get to the root of some of those questions.

So, really interesting situation developing in Edmonton, certainly one that we’re going to continue to watch. And as mentioned, this is not just a huge story in the NHL after a really quiet summer. But when you have a player of this magnitude potentially getting to free agency or getting, inching closer to it, there’s going to be a bigger story across the all four major sports here in the United States.

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