Penton: McDavid contract a great deal for Oilers
By Bruce Penton
Connor McDavid could have asked for the moon, and Edmonton Oilers’ owner Daryl Katz would have somehow arranged to have it pulled from the sky. But the 28-year-old superstar hockey player stunned the National Hockey League just before the start of the 2025-26 season by signing a two-year contract for, basically, second-line centre money.
While he and his wife Lauren won’t have to visit neighbourhood food banks after agreeing to accept $12.5 million U.S. per year for two seasons, McDavid sent a stark message to the Oilers, confirming that his No. 1 incentive is not to be the highest-paid player in the NHL, but to win the Stanley Cup. And to win it wearing the Oilers’ blue and orange.
While team-mate Leon Draisaitl is making $14 million a year for the next six seasons, and Minnesota star Kirill Kiprizov recently became the highest-paid NHLer with a $17 million per year contract, McDavid’s decision to take less money gives general manager Stan Bowman some extra cash to play with in order to sign some complementary pieces to surround McDavid, Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the centrepieces of the Oilers’ still-relevant Stanley Cup contender.
Bowman, whose team lost in the Stanley Cup final to Florida in back-to-back seasons, might want to start by finding a Hellebuyckian-style goaltender who is able to win games by himself. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, the Oilers’ two goalies, are decent, but not game-stealers or game-breakers. Sometimes they break games in the wrong fashion, as happened on opening night this year when Skinner’s peewee-league-style mishap with a loose puck eventually resulted in a shootout loss to visiting Calgary Flames.
The hockey world expressed astonishment at McDavid’s decision to sign such a team-friendly, lowball contract. But after the 2028-29 season, when he will be eligible for free agency, his market value will still be astronomical and he can then seek a Fort Knox-like contract from any one of dozens of suitors. If, in the meantime the Oilers win a championship thanks in part to McDavid’s largesse, his strategy will have been successful — a Stanley Cup victory and the promise of a massive contract to play out his sensational career.
Now, with the contract controversy out of the way, the Oilers can get down to business — making the Stanley Cup final again and taking the final step, spraying champagne all over the place.
“(This) team is in a position to succeed because we've got a good team, a good group of players, but also because we've got a situation where Connor is allowing the team a little more flexibility to address needs,” Oilers’ coach Kris Knoblauch told Mark Spector of Sportsnet.
Said McDavid: “If (this contract) lends urgency, that's a good byproduct, I guess.”
And if nothing special happens around the Oilers in the next three seasons? General manager Kelly McCrimmon in Las Vegas is already starting to put together a vault of cash to woo the man they may start to call Connor McVegas.
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