The Oilers and Connor McDavid reached an agreement on a new contract extension just before the start of the 2025-26 NHL season. McDavid, who was set to play this season on an expiring contract, will now remain in Edmonton for two more seasons, and he'll be playing on a bargain of a contract, no less.
McDavid agreed to an extremely team-friendly two-year, $25 million deal. That sees his current salary stay at $12.5 million per season, when he could very reasonably have earned much, much more. The Wild signed Kirill Kaprizov to an eight-year extension last week worth $17 million annually. McDavid could've easily surpassed those figures, and potentially inked a deal worth as much as $19.1 million per year.
Instead, he accepted a discounted paycheck in order to remain in Edmonton–the terms of which GM Stan Bowman said were put forth by McDavid himself. In doing so, he sent a clear message to the organization, and also set a potential expiration date on his time with the team.
It's officially do or die time for the Oilers.
McDavid wants to win. He needs to win, in order to truly go down among the all-time greats of the game. He's undeniably one of the greatest talents to ever play in the NHL, but for all the individual accolades he racks up, he's still not achieved the ultimate goal of winning a Cup. And this two-year deal paints a perfectly clear timeline for both himself and the Oilers to achieve that. He's leaving money, effectively around $6.6 million per year, on the table as a means for Edmonton to go land some more pieces to help build a championship-caliber roster after falling short in consecutive seasons. If they can't do it, perhaps he'll reconsider his long-term future in the city.
Needless to say, this is a huge, huge opportunity for the Oilers, one which they probably weren't expecting to have. At least, not quite like this. Of course, they were going to competitively fight to keep McDavid in Edmonton long-term, but now they're free of the risk of losing him for nothing this offseason, and can also further improve a roster that's made back-to-back Stanley Cup runs. They'll enter the season as favorites to win the Cup, especially with the reigning champion Panthers dealing with significant injuries to Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
McDavid will be a free agent in 2028. He'll be 31 then, at which point he'll still be in his prime and able to sign a lucrative, long-term contract, whether that's in Edmonton or not. By the time he's a free agent, the salary cap could permit a max contract of around $25 million, which he'd certainly warrant on the open market. It's hardly a risk for McDavid to make this move now. He'll still get a big pay day in the future, and he's opened himself up to larger future earnings rather than committing to a long-term deal before the salary cap rises.
Edmonton is the city that drafted McDavid, and that's where he wants to win a Cup. He's giving them what will likely be their best chance to achieve that goal with his discounted two-year extension, and he's also leaving the door open to depart if they can't get the job done. There's much less certainty beyond the next few years, but the front office now has a great opportunity to bring the city its first Stanley Cup title since 1990. And they need to deliver.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Connor McDavid’s Two-Year Contract Extension Is a Clear Message to the Oilers.
