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‘We are in a crisis’: Canadian PM addresses Connor McDavid’s contract negotiation with Oilers
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Cam Lewis
Sep 10, 2025, 16:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 10, 2025, 20:49 EDT
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Discourse around Connor McDavid’s contract has reached national politics.
With Mark Carney’s Liberal Party caucus meeting in Edmonton this week ahead of the fall sitting of Parliament, Canada’s Prime Minister jokingly addressed the captain of the Oilers and best player in the NHL potentially heading into the 2025-26 season as an impending free agent.
“Let’s face it, we are in a crisis. The global trading system has been upended. Supply chains have been destroyed. McDavid is unsigned.
This is not a transition. This is a rupture. As in times like these, you have to draw back in. Remember what you have: Draisaitl, Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins. We’ve got to draw on those strengths. We’ve got to draw on those values. And, Connor, if there’s anything that we can do in the upcoming budget. We’re spending less, we’re going to invest more, so we can bring that Cup back to Canada.”
McDavid is entering the final season of the eight-year, $100 million contract he signed with the Oilers back in July of 2017. While he’s stated his commitment to Edmonton and belief that the team is going to be competing for a Stanley Cup again this year, the 28-year-old also has no interest in rushing through this process.
Since being selected with the first-overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, McDavid scored 361 goals and 1,082 points over 712 regular-season games with the Oilers, while also adding 150 points across 96 playoff games. He’s won the Art Ross Trophy five times, the Hart Trophy three times, and even has a Conn Smythe Trophy to his name, but the Richmond Hill, Ontario native is still chasing his first Stanley Cup.
Edmonton has reached the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back seasons but fell to the Florida Panthers both times. The Oilers will open the 2025-26 regular season on October 8 when they host the Calgary Flames.

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