I know Connor McDavid signed his extension last year, and I know we’ve a year to digest the idea of him sticking around for two more years at $12.5 million per season starting this season, but sometimes the hockey world gives you a reminder of just how wild that number actually is.

We got yet another reminder of how great McDavid’s contract is this morning when Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year extension with the Sharks that kicks in for the 2027-28 season at $18.8 million per year, which is one of those numbers that makes you double-take even though we all know the cap is starting its climb to Mars.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s good for a guy like Celebrini to secure the bag. Same goes for Leo Carlsson after landing an $18 million offer sheet from Philadelphia that Anaheim had to match. Good for Bowen Byram for landing $12.5 million per season with Chicago in free agency, even though everyone thinks that deal is nuts. I’m not a guy who complains when players take the money that teams are putting on the table, because if someone wants to back up the Brinks truck and offers to sign you for nearly nine figures, I believe you sprint to the table and sign in blood if you have to. That’s pro sports, that’s flexing leverage, and that’s exactly how these guys should treat a finite career.

But numbers like we’re seeing right now are also what makes McDavid’s extension look so ridiculous from an Oilers perspective. The best player on earth could have asked for anything he wanted, and the Edmonton Oilers would have been thrilled to sign him to whatever that number was. He could have looked at where the cap was going, looked at what high-end players were projecting to get, and decided to reset the market in a way that would have made everyone else look like they’re working for minimum wage. Instead, he signed for $12.5 million, which is the same AAV as Byram, $5.5 million less than Carlsson, and $6.3 million less than Celebrini’s new deal. I understand those contracts are all different situations, different timelines, and different teams, but that’s not stopping me from feeling thankful for No. 97. The contrast is insane.

That’s why I keep feeling grateful more than anything else when I think about the start of this two-year McExtension. McDavid did not have to do what he did at the number he landed on. He did not have to leave millions of dollars on the table to help the Oilers have a better chance at winning. He did not have to give management more wiggle room under the cap to work with. He did not have to sign a deal that gives Edmonton a better chance to build a team around him over the next two seasons. He had more leverage than any player in league history, and instead of squeezing the Oilers for every penny, he gave them a number that should make life easier at a time when the pressure to win is sky high.

And sure, we can worry about the two-year term if we want to get hung up on the noise. Two years is not exactly a long time, and nobody is pretending this deal answers every McDavid-related question until the end of time. Given the way the league is playing out, we know the next extension in Edmonton is going to be a monster, and once again, he will be worth every penny. When that day comes, the Oilers should pay the man whatever he wants and thank him with endless edible arrangements for the years when he played at a discount. But for now, I’m choosing to look at what this contract actually does for the Oilers instead of getting lost in what the Toronto media keeps trying to manifest. This extension keeps Connor McDavid in Edmonton through the next two seasons, and it does so at a number that gives the Oilers a real chance to build a competitive team around him and Leon.

Having that optionality and McDavid’s dedication to Edmonton matters even more these days when you look around the league and see how quickly situations can change with franchise-level players. Brady Tkachuk is in Florida now. Dylan Larkin asked out of Detroit. Quinn Hughes left Vancouver only months after talking about his dedication to the team and city. Star players moving, wanting out, or ending up in heart wrenching situations for the fanbase is happening more and more, and yet that has not happened here with McDavid. For all the outside noise about him leaving, all the pressure to win, and all the years of 31 other fanbases hoping he would eventually look somewhere else, he stayed where it started. More than that, he signed at a rate that can help the team win.

It would have been easy for McDavid to make things impossible for the Oilers by commanding a contract value befitting of his importance, and nobody in or outside of Edmonton would have blamed him for a minute. Since the day he was drafted, Connor McDavid has carried the weight of this organization, dragged it through seasons where he and his running mate did the bulk of the lifting, and done everything humanly possible to put the Oilers in a position to win the Cup that we so desperately want to see him lift. If he wanted the biggest contract in league history, he could have gotten his way in about six seconds and signed it before anyone even had time to form a rebuttal. Instead, he gave the Oilers breathing room.

Of course, having McDavid signed on a cheap deal for the next two years doesn’t mean Stan Bowman has an easy job or can spend his time chilling out. If anything, it puts more pressure on the management to get this right. The captain did his part by giving them flexibility. He gave them time to find more quality pieces to insert in the lineup using the space he afforded them. He gave them a chance to take advantage of two seasons where the best player in the world is making a salary that looks almost confusing compared to what the market is doing around him. Now it’s on the Oilers to make sure they do not waste the gift he gave them last summer.

So, how do we wrap this up? By saying thank you, Connor. Thank you for staying in Edmonton, thank you for caring enough about winning that you were willing to sacrifice millions, and thank you for giving the Oilers a little more room to chase the thing everyone around here wants so badly. We all know the next deal will be massive, and I will happily spend that day yelling all over the Internet about how he deserves every cent, but for the next two years, Edmonton has the best hockey player on earth signed at a number that looks better every time another contract gets announced.

Of course, now the tricky part is for the Oilers to do something with the opportunity.

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