Edmonton Oilers captain and three-time MVP Connor McDavid said earlier today that he plans to take his time deciding whether or not he wants to re-sign with Edmonton, as his current contract is set to expire next off-season. In 2017, he signed an eight-year, $100 million deal that runs through the end of the 2025-26 season.
“I said at the end of June, I had every intention to take my time with it, and I still feel the same way,” McDavid told reporters. “I’ll take my time and go through everything.”
McDavid was one of several NHL stars attending the Canada Men’s Olympic Orientation Camp ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. He joked that he was hoping to start by answering Olympics-based questions, but reassured Oilers fans that he is solely focused on winning.
“I have every intention to win in Edmonton,” McDavid said. “It’s my only focus, maybe next to winning a gold medal with Canada. But that is my intention: to win there.”
Since being drafted by the Oilers in 2015, Connor McDavid has helped the franchise become a perennial playoff team, reaching the postseason seven times in his first ten years as a pro. Unfortunately for him, the Oilers have fallen short of a Stanley Cup championship after suffering back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers the last two years.
Ideally, McDavid and the Oilers would like to finalize a deal before the regular season begins on October 7th. But, he said that the two sides haven’t even started negotiating a new contract.
“All options are on the table, really,” McDavid explained. “We’re going through it. I don’t have a preference either way. I want the group to be as focused and dialed in, and ready to roll from Day One as possible, and we don’t need any distractions.”
McDavid’s former agent, Jeff Jackson, who is now the CEO of hockey operations for the Edmonton Oilers, doesn’t seem all that concerned about the negotiation process. He believes the two sides will be able to get a deal done quickly.
“He has another year. He loves playing in Edmonton. And sure enough, we got a deal done [in] early September with Leon (Draisaitl), and we’re super happy about that. So, I sort of feel it’s the same with Connor,” Jackson said during an interview on The Sheet with Jeff Marek podcast. “It’s not going to be a long negotiation… It’ll be unlike any other sort of negotiation because it’s not really, and I think that when Connor’s ready, we’ll have the discussion, and we’ll get a deal done.”
Regardless of Jeff Jackson’s expectations, McDavid reiterated that he is not in a rush to get anything done.
“I’ll take my time going through it with my family, my agent, and everybody involved,” he explained. “We’re going through it slowly.”
The Edmonton Oilers open training camp on September 17th. Their first game of the regular season will be against the Calgary Flames on October 8th at 10:00 p.m. EDT.
