I have nothing to add to this. Seriously, our crack staff here, the myriad Oilers reporters, and the NHL insiders who butter their bread with scoops are already discussing it ad nauseam.

Everyone is on the case.

My opinion is that I hope he re-signs. How about that for analysis!

As an addendum, may I propose the McDavid Panic Meter? I’m no good at drawing – all my limited talent went to the words department (to the chagrin of my loved ones) – but perhaps a local artist could mock this up.

If McDavid doesn’t sign before the start of training camp, the McDavid Panic Meter will jump to 2.5 out of 10. This, according to my algorithm of Noise + Time = Concern.

If the Panic Meter is too sensational for you, may I suggest astrology for answers? A fortune cookie?

I’m already exhausted by the topic. For pure want of not having to hear about it anymore, just sign Connor! Let the noise lead to sweet release.

Wasn’t it all Duller than Usual?

Tell me if I’m out to lunch here, but is the noise surrounding McDavid in any way heightened because this NHL off-season was so boring that any morsel of news is bound to be turned up to 11? (Don’t sleep on the new Spinal Tap movie by the way).

Obviously, the contract status of Earth’s best hockey player is a top story. I’m not diminishing that.

But it isn’t like we’ve been served a bevy of juicy storylines to tide us over, either.

Mitch Marner, scorning the Toronto Hockey World and ditching his boyhood team for the Vegas Golden Knights, is all we’ve had to chew on.

Sure, Ehlers to Carolina. Cool.

And then…Carey Price is apparently still under contract?

All Habs

@AllHabs

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Canadiens Trade Carey Price's Contract to the Sharks habsfanatics.com/nhl/trades/can… #GoHabsGo #Canadiens

9:15 PM · Sep 5, 2025

Finally, Relief from Playoff Salary Cap Shenanigans

The biggest shoe to drop this week is the NHL implementing the salary cap for the playoffs, a maneuver so overdue, commissioner Gary Bettman and the league have decided a new bargaining agreement be damned. Let’s get jump-started a year early.

Just like in the regular season, the roster that’s iced for any playoff game has to be under the salary cap.

Plus, accruing cap space throughout the regular season by staying under by so much, in hopes of having it to your disposal in the playoffs, won’t work either.

Players’ full season salaries go into account here, not just the percentage of their salary that a newly acquired player has remaining.

If the salary cap was such a good idea in the first place, why wouldn’t it automatically extend to the post-season? How was this ever allowed?

The Stanley Cup is hard enough to win. But in the past decade, your chances are all but enhanced by a February injury to an elite player, which allows that team to load up with another equally valued player, so they could have both for the playoffs.

Gone will be all these arguments that served no purpose or did any good for the game. I’m sick of hearing defences of LTIR usage, no tax states, and the like. Particularly arguments that begin with, “Well, Florida was bad in the 2000s, and no one talked about taxes then.”

I guess things that weren’t problems in the past can’t be problems now. The logic doesn’t suffice.

Florida is a great hockey team. Florida also finished two points better than the Calgary Flames last season.

The margins between these hockey teams are so razor-thin that any lever for a long-term advantage will be used.

I’m not doubting the legitimacy of Matthew Tkachuk’s injury (although Mark Stone is an uncanny case), but I did notice how damn good Seth Jones was in the playoffs. The point being, if the cap stays in place throughout the playoffs, the Panthers have decisions to make night after night on who is in and out of the lineup.

Champions shouldn’t be in any way helped by a February injury.

That seems reasonable to me.

Add the New York Islanders to the Retool Box

As I alluded to above, the NHL is becoming congested with teams in the same tier.

A mix of randomness, which hockey has in spades by the nature of blades on ice with a vulcanized piece of rubber, combined with fewer teams tearing down for full rebuilds, has created the mushiest of mushy middle tiers in the league.

So I did find it interesting that Mathieu Darche, the New York Islanders’ new general manager, was quoted in The Athletic by Pierre LeBrun that the Isles are not tearing it down.

No rebuild here, folks.

I can see his logic.

They lucked out with the NHL’s Draft Lottery system by winning with just a 3.5 per cent chance.

They flipped Noah Dobson and turned him into two first-round picks (Victor Eklund, Kashawn Aitcheson) plus Emil Heineman (former 2nd-rounder in 2020).

Matthew Schaefer is a dynamite addition. They have exciting young players for the first time since seemingly Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy.

The Isles had injuries, yes, poor special teams, and finished nine points out of a wildcard. But I’m not sure they’re all so close. One more draft would do them wonders.

Conversely, you tear it down to the studs, and you assume that in five years, you’ll be back near the top. The NHL is not linear in terms of growth in the salary cap era anymore.

The vaunted full rebuild is a much scarier prospect these days. Case in point – the Buffalo Sabres, who are in Rebuild 3.0.

Darche lucked out by winning a lottery, and he sees the Washington Capitals as the beacon for everyone who subscribes to the retool.

With that said, the Capitals are this season’s prime regression team with the 82-point efforts of Dylan Strome, and the holy-smokes-where-the-hell-did-that-guy-come-from season of Alaiksei Protas bound to level out.

The retool also isn’t as sexy when you look at, say, the Detroit Red Wings, where the toolbelt is running out of screws, or the Calgary Flames, whose fans are wondering if they’re in the worst position you can be in in the league.

A True Canadian Legend

Ken Dryden passed away at 78 due to cancer on Friday, and the hockey world, Canada by and large, too, lost a singular voice.

Truly a one of one, Dryden’s life is truly unmatched, a man whose identity was not solely tied to the game.

There can be nothing but immense respect for the hugely influential trail he blazed, not just as a six-time Stanley Cup champion, but as a writer, politician, and man.

If you’re not familiar with his life, read the many outpourings of obituaries commemorating the man, including this great one from Tyler Kuehl.

It’s consensus that his book The Game is the greatest hockey book ever written, and what it captures is both participant and viewer to perhaps the greatest dynasty in hockey history: the Montreal Canadiens of 1976-79.

He captures the strange monotony of success at the highest level while beautifully describing the greatness of his teammates and the expectation of winning.

Dryden transitioned in the span of mere months from Toronto Maple Leafs president to the Minister of Social Development after becoming a Member of Parliament.

Let’s just say the guy had a big brain, helped Canada win the 1972 Summit Series, and did 30 other things, all while playing in fewer games than Cory Schneider.

What a life. And what a record: 258-57-74.

Rest in peace.

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