The wait is finally over. After some tense months, the Edmonton Oilers were able to work out a contract extension with Connor McDavid. It’s a shorter-term deal than Oilers fans would have preferred at just two years, though the massive discount he took has excited many. The 28-year-old will carry a cap hit of just $12.5 million.
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That deal is less than his teammate in Leon Draisaitl, who carries a cap hit of $14 million. It is also significantly less than a deal Kirill Kaprizov signed with the Minnesota Wild last week, which will see him carry a cap hit of $17 million. That goes to show just how big of a discount McDavid took, as he easily could have surpassed Kaprizov’s cap hit if he had wished to do so.
Time for Management to Come Through
This deal shows not just how badly McDavid not only wants to win, but how badly he wants to do so in Edmonton. He had all the power in these negotiations and could have taken that same discount deal anywhere else in free agency, but chose to once again stick with the city he’s called home since entering the NHL in 2015-16.
This selfless decision proves to the entire hockey world that he isn’t concerned nearly as much about the money as he is about winning. Taking a deal at just $12.5 million, when most experts expected him to take north of $16 million, gives the Oilers a great opportunity to round out the rest of their roster with talent thanks to the rapidly increasing maximum salary cap.
While this does put the Oilers in a great spot, however, it will only matter if management capitalizes on it. They’ve let their captain down far too many times throughout his NHL career, and may have one final chance to come through for him. That will mean filling out holes on their roster with the cap space he’s kept open for them.
The biggest change that needs to come is in between the pipes. While Stuart Skinner will presumably be their starting goalie for the remainder of the 2025-26 season, a change will be needed ahead of 2026-27 unless he is able to perform much better than anyone is expecting in the near future.
Goaltending isn’t the only change needed to be made, either. The Oilers need to add another scoring winger, something they’ve lacked throughout the majority of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s tenure. Whether it be in free agency or through a trade, they need an everyday top-six winger who can put the puck in the net on a regular basis.
While the Oilers do have other players such as Mattias Ekholm and Brett Kulak on expiring contracts, they were also able to sign Jake Walman to a seven-year contract extension this morning. That is a big boost to their blue line moving forward, though they will need to make some other upgrades on that back end if they choose not to bring back Ekholm and Kulak.
Oilers Have No Excuse to Not Win a Stanley Cup
Given this extreme discount that McDavid was willing to take, the Oilers have absolutely zero excuse to not win a Stanley Cup within these next three seasons. One could already argue there is no excuse as to why they haven’t done so yet, which makes the fact that McDavid committed all the more exciting to the fan base.
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Though Stan Bowman hasn’t been in his role as the Oilers’ general manager for very long, the pressure is all on him to ensure his team fills its holes in order to bring a Stanley Cup to the city. It may not be an easy task, but McDavid signing this deal certainly helps, and puts all the pressure on management moving forward.
