The reason there won’t be Connor McDavid news with Oilers after disappointing end to season originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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It’s not how Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers wanted this season to end.
They didn’t even make it out of the first round of the playoffs, instead falling to the Anaheim Ducks.
After two consecutive appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, it was a big step backward.
McDavid still hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in Edmonton, and the clock seems to be ticking.
Despite that, there’s an expectation that there won’t be any major McDavid news this summer, according to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Why? Because he already made his intentions clear.
Before the 2025-26 season, McDavid signed a two-year contract extension that takes him through the 2027-28 season. At that point in time, he could’ve signed for as long as eight more years, but he didn’t.
McDavid signaled how he was feeling about the future, and how long he was willing to ride it out with the Oilers before considering other options.
“Don’t expect any news from McDavid after a disappointing Oilers season,” Kaplan writes. “He just signed a short-term, team-friendly deal last summer. Edmonton already knows it’s on the clock with its generational superstar.”
Yes, Edmonton has moves to make this offseason to determine how successful it can be moving forward with McDavid. That’ll start with hiring a new head coach, and there’ll always be improvements to be made to every roster.
But on a different timeline, McDavid may have been viewed as a potential flight risk with a trade request coming down the chute. That shouldn’t happen here, given how recently he put a short-term timeline on his time in Edmonton.
The Oilers have work to do, but they don’t have to worry about losing McDavid quite yet.