The clock keeps ticking towards the end of the 2025-26 season when Connor McDavid’s contract expires with the Edmonton Oilers.
Fans in Toronto think, for some reason or another, he’ll return home, while no signs indicate that to be the case. Instead, all signs point towards McDavid remaining in Edmonton for a very, very long time, given his teammate and one of his closest friends Leon Draisaitl inked a mammoth eight-year deal valued at $112-million.
McDavid appears to be taking a page out of Draisatil’s book when it comes to negotiations, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Tuesday, saying contract negotiations haven’t begun, but it’s nothing to worry about: those will likely kick off in the offseason.
“We all know that he has one year left on his deal after this season, and the reality is Jeff Jackson said they have not started any type of contract negotiation, or conversation, on that front. He can’t sign until July 1st anyway, but it’s very similar to the pattern we saw last year with Leon Draisaitl, in which Leon Draisaitl wanted to focus on hockey, wanted to focus on the season, before getting into it after the year. That’s the sense now we get with Connor McDavid, there’s no hurry to this, there’s a season to play out, there’s a focus on getting back with the Oilers to a Stanley Cup Final, and then, everyone involved is comfortable with having that conversation.“One thing that Jeff Jackson reiterated is July 1st is not a deadline. Whether an extension can get done on July 1st or later in the summer, so be it. Everyone should calm down in Oiler Nation and realize it will get done when it gets done. Obviously that’s the Oilers fans hope.”
McDavid would be eligible to extend his eight-year, $12.5-million AAV deal on July 1st next year, likely set for a significant raise that would make him the highest-paid player in the game. His previous extension was signed on July 5th, 2017, a year before it kicked in, and that’s the same thing Draisaitl did this summer, getting a big annual raise from $8.5-million to $14-million.
It feels like $15-million is a nice, round number for McDavid, but he could command even more if he chose, given a player can earn, at maximum, 20 percent of a team’s total salary cap. If the cap rises to $100-million by the time his extension kicks in for the 2026-27 season, that would be a $20-million deal. There’s no denying that McDavid would be worth every penny in that scenario, but he knows what kind of constraint that would place on the team’s ability to acquire talent around he, Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and others, too.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
