The lack of a new contract for Connor McDavid continues to dominate headlines as the Edmonton Oilers opened their training camp in Alberta earlier this week — but general manager Stan Bowman is not concerned.
Speaking to reporters on the first day of camp on Wednesday, Bowman said it is only a matter of time before player and club reach an agreement that will keep No. 97 in town past the 2025-26 campaign.
“I just go by what Connor said, and that’s that he wants nothing more than to win in Edmonton,” the veteran executive said, per NHL.com's Derek Van Diest. “I take him at his word. He’s going through his own process, and you have to understand that and respect it, and I do. When he’s ready, he’ll be ready.”
The 52-year-old continued: “I realize that’s on everyone’s mind, the media and the fans, and it’s on our minds too. It’s one of those things where we’ve had multiple conversations, and he’s been very consistent with what he’s been saying to the media as well as to myself and we just kind of go from it from there.”
McDavid said earlier in the offseason that he was in no rush to sign an extension, although many expected that he would be locked up by the time training camp commenced. The superstar is entering the final season of a mammoth eight-year, $100 million contract he signed back in July of 2017.
The rest of Edmonton's core is secure, with Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard all re-signed for at least the next three seasons.
Can the Oilers win without Connor McDavid?
McDavid has made it abundantly clear that his only goal left in the National Hockey League is to win a Stanley Cup.
“He's won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leader in points five times (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023), the Maurice ‘Rocket' Richard Trophy as the League’s leading goal-scorer once (2023), the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player three times (2017, 2021, 2023) the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player as voted by the NHLPA four times (2017, 2018, 2021, 2023), and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP (2024),” wrote Van Diest on Thursday.
Despite the individual accolades, the Oilers still don't have a Stanley Cup ring since 1990. The team has suffered back-to-back crushing defeats at the hands of the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, and the narrative would be completely different if Edmonton had found a way to win one of those series.
McDavid needs to believe that the only NHL team he has ever played for will continue to be a perennial contender, and that seems to be the holdup for the 28-year-old.
“When you’re trying to plan the next three, four, seven, nine years of your life, you don’t just dream it up in one day; you take your time, talk it over, think about it some more, talk it over again,” McDavid said earlier in September, per Van Diest.
“It's not something that I take lightly, it’s not something that my family takes lightly. I’ve put everything I have into my career, just like everybody here. You only get one chance to do it and to do it right and that leads to taking your time with it and that’s where it’s at.”
It'll be interesting to see if McDavid's contract saga ends up being a distraction this year, or whether the superstar will decide to re-sign before the regular-season begins on October 8 against the Calgary Flames.
