Connor McDavid is the NHL’s best player by a wide margin. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Connor McDavid controls the pace of nearly every game he plays with his speed, power and creativity on the ice. He is about to seize control of the way the game is played in the offseason as well.
McDavid is about to enter the final season of an eight-year deal that has paid him $12.5 million per season with the Edmonton Oilers. He was the highest paid player in the NHL for the majority of that deal, but teammate Leon Draisaitl signed an extension that pays him $14 million per season. McDavid now has the fifth-most lucrative contract in the league.
The Oilers are coming off their second Stanley Cup Finals loss in a row. After pushing the Florida Panthers to seven games in 2024, the Oilers lost to the two-time Stanley Cup champions in six games this time around.
Once again, no Canadian team has waltzed around the ice with the Stanley Cup since 1993. That was the last Stanley Cup triumph by the Montral Canadiens and the nation that basically invented and perfected the sport has been shut out for 32 years.
Which brings us to McDavid. He has played with the Oilers for 10 seasons and he has not been on the winning side in any year the Stanley Cup has been handed out.
As he prepares for the final year of his contract, he is not committed to staying with the Oilers for any more than the upcoming 2025-26 season.
This makes the Oilers and their fans uncomfortable. There are many observers who believe it will be just a matter of time before McDavid puts his signature on a new deal with Edmonton and he will stay there throughout his career.
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t may not be that way. More than anything else, Connor McDavid wants to win a Stanley Cup. He can start talking to Oilers general manager Stan Bowman about a new deal July 1. McDavid is not concerned or overwhelmed by the financial details. He wants to know that there is a plan for Edmonton winning the Stanley Cup — and do it more than once. He wants to see a viable plan.
McDavid is a very serious man. He has not regularly revealed his true nature in press conferences or one-on-ones with media members, but he exploded to his teammates a year ago when they fell behind 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the opening two games in Sunrise, Florida. Cameras caught him demanding a greater effort from his teammates in explicit fashion. While they lost the next game, they rallied to tie the series at 3-3 before they succumbed in Game 7 a year ago.
McDavid may not have overwhelming faith in his team, based on the confidence level he is currently at. “I think so,” McDavid said. “We still have a lot of confidence and belief. I don’t think people thought we were going to make it this far. We believe and we came up just short again.”
If Bowman goes into the upcoming negotiations with an aggressive plan to make McDavid the highest paid player in his sport, he will almost certainly lose McDavid. He wants to see a working plan of a man who has the job of bringing the Edmonton franchise multiple Stanley Cups.
McDavid will not be bulldozed into signing a contract extension early. Draisaitl was in the same position last year, and he didn’t sign his deal until September 3. Draisaitl is a superb scorer and he may be the No. 2 player in the league behind McDavid. But he is not McDavid’s equal on the ice.
McDavid wants Bowman to show him a worthwhile and sustainable plan that will allow the Oilers to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and come out with the victory. Telling the world how good the Panthers are is not where McDavid wants to be next year. He wants the Stanley Cup.
Bowman may not be up to the task. Going into the offseason, the Oilers will have $12 million in cap space at this point with 39 players under contract. They also have seven who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents.
Bowman is going to have to get very creative if he is going to bring the Stanley Cup to Edmonton. The son of record-setting Stanley Cup-winning head coach Scotty Bowman does not come across as creative or charismatic. His news conferences with the Oilers – and prior to that with the Chicago Blackhawks – are as ho-hum as they get.
He is not going to ask McDavid to “climb on his back” and drive the team to the Stanley Cup. That is not Bowman’s style and it will be very difficult to convince McDavid that the Oilers are ever going to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and raise Lord Stanley’s chalice.
