Connor McDavid’s brand-new two-year extension with the Edmonton Oilers has not only calmed the nerves of the fanbase, but its $12.5 million AAV has given Oilers GM Stan Bowman a massive advantage when it comes to giving the league’s best player a shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

And he better not blow it.

McDavid prolonging the extension conversation and then signing a short-term deal at a very discounted price tag has suddenly put even more pressure on this front office to build a Stanley Cup winner around him.

It’s probably fair to assume that was McDavid’s intention, although if this process has shown us anything, it’s that none of us know for sure what he’s thinking.

Still, the Oilers need to take this break that McDavid has given them and make the most of it.

I don’t think the league’s best player signed at a discounted number just so the front office can go and make sure that the team can bring in some overpaid third-line players.

No, this was done so that the Oilers can go out and add a truly impactful piece to this forward group.

That’s something that the organization clearly had an appetite for, going back to last season when they went very deep in talks to acquire Mikko Rantanen ahead of the trade deadline. Now, with McDavid signed to a team-friendly bargain $12.5M AAV, it gets even easier to envision a world where Edmonton lands another star-level player.

Don’t believe me? Let’s run through the math. And we’ll even make sure to include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in our calculations this time, unlike our dopey managing editor yesterday afternoon.

With the players that the Oilers currently have under contract, this is what their roster could look like for next season:

With eleven forwards, five defensemen, and no goalies under contract, that version of the Oilers above has a combined salary cap hit of roughly $79 million. After considering Jack Campbell’s buyout, that becomes a combined cap hit of about $81.5 million.

For the sake of this exercise, let’s say that they re-sign one of Brett Kulak or Mattias Ekholm for $4.5M (which seems like a realistic number, if not maybe a little on the high side), they bring back Noah Philp to be their 4C at $1M, and have their 13th forward make the league minimum.

Now the combined cap hit sits at just under $88 million. With a projected 2026-27 cap ceiling of $103 million, the Oilers would then have $15 million to sign one forward, one defenseman, and two goalies.

It’s also worth noting that the cap ceiling could be even higher next season. According to multiple insiders, the cap is actually expected to rise to $107M.

So, it’s going to realistically be closer to $20 million in cap room to add to the roster. Do the Oilers feel the need to upgrade their blueline? Do they want to sign a star-level forward and figure out everything else from there? Maybe they want to go all-in on a veteran goalie tandem.

The way that this season plays out will ultimately determine all of that, but because McDavid chose to lock in at $12.5M instead of signing for $16M or $17M (which we all would agree he would have been totally justified in doing), the Oilers have options. A lot of them.

Some players on the roster could be moved out to create even more cap space, like Mattias Janmark, who could likely be replaced with a player making under $1M, saving the Oilers roughly $600k. Maybe someone like Ekholm sees McDavid take a discount and signs for under $4M, which would add even more money to the amount that I projected.

There’s a world where they have north of $20M to spend next summer, and I fully expect that Stan Bowman and his staff will be going big-game hunting with that money.

The free-agent class currently looks loaded, with players like Jack Eichel, Adrian Kempe, Kyle Connor, and Artemi Panarin all heading into this season without new contracts. I doubt any of those players make it to market, though.

I think it’s much more likely that Bowman will have to make his major addition via the trade market.

Regardless, McDavid’s decision to sign for less opens up a lot of possibilities, and I have no doubt in my mind that in the next ten months, the Oilers will make a major addition to their roster.