Penton: McDavid’s contract the talk of the NHL
By Bruce Penton
September is baseball and football season but in Canada, hockey is a 12-month-a-year deal, so no one should be surprised that one of the hottest sports story today — other than Blue Jays’ mania — is about Connor McDavid and ‘will he or won’t he’ sign a contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers.
Without an extension, the world’s best player will play the 2025-26 season on the final year of an eight-year, $100 million contract he signed in 2017. But other than stating the obvious cliche that he wants to make sure his next contract is best for him and his family — it will be, no matter how much money is involved — his contract situation will have huge implications around the National Hockey League.
While he’ll have plenty of money for the fanciest of cars, the most elaborate home, the most spectacular off-season travel adventures and nothing but the best in jewels and clothing for his wife Lauren, what McDavid wants more than anything is to win a Stanley Cup. Since he’s been an Oiler since entering the NHL in 2015, he’d love to do it with Edmonton.
But is it possible? Even though the league’s salary cap is rising in $95.5 million this year, $104 million next year and $113.5 million the year after, paying McDavid the maximum 20 per cent of the Oilers’ total salary could make it difficult for general manager Stan Bowman to surround McDavid with enough quality players to win the Cup.
Yet, if McDavid were to sign a ‘home-town discount’ contract that allows salary cap room for a couple of extra stars, the NHL Players’ Association would not be happy, because whatever sum McDavid signs for would be regarded as the ceiling around the league, leaving superstars such as Jack Eichel and Kirill Kaprizov likely forced to sign future contracts for a little less than what McDavid agrees to.
“All options are on the table and that would mean length of term, short term, long term, no term,” McDavid told NHL.com. “All options are on the table as I’ve alluded to, so that would include a short-term deal.”
No-term? Does that mean he’d consider not signing an extension and becoming a free agent on July 1, 2026? Like he said, everything’s on the table.
Edmonton’s roster still has Stanley Cup talent. Not much has changed since June, when the Oilers lost their second straight Stanley Cup final to Florida Panthers, whose roster includes no one in the superstar orbit of McDavid or Leon Draisaitl but with more balance than any of the other 31 NHL teams.
“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 told NHL.com.
The winter of 2025-26 may or may not prove to be a troubled one for McDavid, but the real anxiety will be felt by fans in the 18,500 seats of Rogers Place.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “UFC CEO Dana White says he and his good friend President Donald Trump have worked it out where there will be a major UFC Fight on the Fourth of July right at the White House to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. Why? Because nothing represents the state of American politics today like two opposing factions beating the hell out of each other in the nation’s capital.”
Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “They're calling it the Geezers at Caesars. Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson Agree To Fight”
Headline at fark.com: “Tyson and Mayweather to appear in special episode of The Walking Dead.”
From theonion.com: “Pirates Under Fire For Directly Marketing Team To Children — “It is deeply irresponsible to lure kids into becoming Pirates fans before they’re emotionally equipped to handle the kind of disappointment and chronic underperformance this franchise will almost certainly inflict on them.”
NFL writer Doug Farrar, after Miami Dolphins were hammered 33-8 by Indianapolis Colts on the opening weekend of the NFL season: “This was less a contest between two evenly matched NFL teams, and more like what happens when Ohio State or Alabama pays Racoon State Teachers College half a million bucks to get embarrassed by 70 points in a Week 2 non-conference laugher.”
Comedy guy Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver: “NFL RedZone will soon be disrupted by commercials: But hopefully just the most exciting parts of commercials.”
Rolfsen again, after the Cowboys’ Ceedee Lamb had a rough night against Philadelphia Eagles: “Ceedee — stands for catches dropped.”
Another one from Rolfsen, after Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team lost 48-14 in its opening game: “Belichick is about one week away from appointing his girlfriend as defensive co-ordinator.”
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, after the Dolphins’ season-opening loss: "The Dolphins in their 33-8 loss in Indy stunk like limburger cheese left in a car trunk.”
Columnist Norman Chad, as he previews NFL games: “49ers at Saints. If you’re watching this game, you’re either a 49ers fan, a Saints’ fan, or you’re doing time upstate and it’s the only game they’ve got on the prison TV.”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca