As the hockey world waits with bated breath for any crumb of news about Connor McDavid and the status of a potential extension, there’s a contingent of pending free agents in Edmonton that the team will have to deal with at some point.

Beyond McDavid, Adam Henrique, Kasperi Kapanen, Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Brett Kulak, Troy Stecher, Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard — all of whom played on last years teams — are pending unrestricted free agents with Vasily Podkolzin the lone restricted free agent.

And while some might have just assumed none of these situations would get addressed until they had a decision from McDavid, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said that may not be the case.

“No, I think we have had preliminary discussions with a bunch of people who are going into their last year of the deal, not just the two you name, but there’s other players as well,” said Bowman when asked specifically about Ekholm and Walman. “I don’t know if we’re going to wrap all those up in the next little bit, or if it’ll bleed into the season, or if we’ll wait until next year.

“But we’ve had a number of players going into the final year of their contracts that we’ve already engaged with their agents and had positive conversations. Nothing to report as being near the end, but a lot of encouraging discussion. So I don’t think one is related to the other.”

Of the aforementioned bunch, Walman, Ekholm, and Skinner are the three, in that order, I would put the greatest odds of re-signing are.

Walman’s most likely contract, according to Evolving Hockey, is a six-year deal carrying a $6.278-million cap hit, while Ekholm’s most likely deal is a one-year, $5.276-million deal. Skinner’s most likely deal is a five-year deal worth $6.817-million annually.

Heading into this season, the Oilers have $225,834 in cap space, according to PuckPedia, but next summer that number will be a staggering $44,988,334, accounting for all the money coming off the books, as well as another increase in the salary cap.

If the Oilers were to sign Walman, Ekholm and Skinner to those deals, the team would still have $26.617-million in cap space to work with to re-sign McDavid, and fit three other NHL regulars for the third and fourth lines, a sixth and seventh defenceman, as well as a backup goaltender into the mix.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.