There’s a lot of commentary on the fact that Connor hasn’t signed. Stan (Bowman), myself, Daryl Katz, the rest of the management group, we don’t feel that way. We aren’t nervous about it. Connor’s been an Oiler for ten years and he loves playing in Edmonton, living in Edmonton. He’s been very public about his desire to win, and that’s sort of driving his decision making.

I said that two years ago in August when I had my initial press conference when I was named to this position. For us, our job in management is to have the team be there at the end, fighting to win the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, we haven’t got the job done yet. We were very close both years.

Our team has been very good over the past two years. We’re going to be a very good team again. For him, there’s a comfort with Edmonton and with the organizarion.

We’re not nervous, but it isn’t as straightforward as people make it out to be. He’s just taking his time, figuring out what he’d like to do. I talked to his agent (on Tuesday) for over an hour and most options for term are on the table.

We’re confident we’re going to get a deal done. The season doesn’t start for another five weeks. Of course, we’d like to have it done before training camp. But we’re going to get it done at some point, I’m confident in that.

Connor is a very introspective, humble person. He looks at Leon with a high degree of respect. We aren’t trying to compare the two, we aren’t trying to say to Connor, ‘Oh, Leon is making this, you should make that.’

This is a very unique negotiation, if you want to call it that. In many ways, it’s not. It’s going to be something that Connor is comfortable with, both from a dollar amount and a term amount.

I can’t tell you where that’s going to be at this point because I just don’t know. But I do know Connor. He looks at things from all different angles. He isn’t looking purely from an ‘I’m going to break the bank and make as much money as I can here’ scenario.

He wants to find the razor’s edge where he gets paid for the star player that he is, that allows the team to surround him with the best players that we possibly can. All of that comes into his thinking.

Leon is the highest-paid player in the league, and Connor will look at that and try to figure out where he fits in relaton to that.