Now that the Edmonton Oilers are out of Round 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, thanks to the Anaheim Ducks. The focus on the ice changes to what’s happening on the ice. Especially with number 97 and captain of the Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid.
As we saw last season, McDavid will once again be in the spotlight. Not because of the contract extension, but as the contract extension begins, how will the team build around him to make him better? Remember, he gave the Oilers a team-friendly deal at $12.5 million per season, but put management on the clock by only signing a two-year deal.
NHL News: Connor McDavid Extends With Edmonton Oilers
As McDavid said after signing the deal, he’s still determined to win in Edmonton and believes it makes sense to only sign for two years.
“Obviously I said I was determined to win here, and I meant it when I said that, and two years makes a lot of sense,” McDavid said last October. “It gives us an opportunity to continue chasing what we’ve been chasing down here with the important guys we have here, and we’ve got some guys to work with.”
As we’ve seen, GM Stan Bowman didn’t use that cap space wisely; more than that in the deep end at some point, but the Oilers’ window 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 what Bowman needs to do to keep McDavid from leaving in two years.
Writing for NHLRumors.com
Anaheim Ducks Exploit Edmonton Oilers Defensive Weaknesses
Jay Onrait: “Okay, here’s the question everyone is going to ask. Conor McDavid is signed for two more seasons. What does Stan Bowman need to do to keep McDavid from hitting the free agent market in a few years?”
Martin Biron: “There’s a lot of work to be done. Obviously, you have to look at scoring. Tristan Jarry got two more years. Connor Ingram was the starting goaltender down the stretch and in the playoffs. What’s he going to do scoring? That’s been the question for three years. Will he deal with that? What about the defense? He’s got holes going forward. What holes going forward? position.
If you look at the cap projection and see the Oilers have $16 million in cap space next year. That’s good. No, that’s not good, because you’re losing eight free agents this summer. So it’s about $2 million per player. That is not enough. And the rest of the league has a lot of cap space, and they’ll be looking at free agency this summer.
Free agency won’t be a great crop this summer, but at the same time, you can still help yourself. Or if you want to trade players, you need draft picks or prospects, and the Oilers don’t have any of those. So how will you get better? How will you adjust the depth going forward, defense and guard?
NHL Rumors: What is Connor McDavid trying to hear?
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 the first round is good enough. They have to continue with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to say that the trophy is our biggest goal, and it’s going to be a really tough summer to try to do that with limited cap space and not having the money to be able to make a trade. “
So it will be interesting to hear exactly what Connor McDavid has to say when he and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers talk to the media one last time. McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and others know it wasn’t good enough this season. The team was at a high level. So there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that Connor McDavid stays with the Edmonton Oilers.
One thing is certain: the talk about Connor McDavid is not going away. It’s only going up.
We had to restart our X account. Please follow @MyNHLRumorsX
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Rumors and hot topics from around the league. We also post some stuff on Instagram.
If you like our reporting, choose NHLrumors.com as a favorite source on Google.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQkAUPwnsc
“
