{"id":120702,"date":"2025-09-05T01:30:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/120702\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T01:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:30:13","slug":"oilers-connor-mcdavid-discusses-season-contract-ive-got-lots-to-prove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/120702\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers’ Connor McDavid discusses season, contract: ‘I’ve got lots to prove’"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0To everyone who isn\u2019t cheering for Team Canada at the Olympics, or bleeding the blue and orange while the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> try to finish the job again this National Hockey League season, you may want to avert your eyes.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a> rolled out of a Pilates session on Thursday, picked up the phone for his first of a thousand interviews now that he\u2019s back home in Edmonton, and declared of the coming season, \u201cI feel like I got lots to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

What possibly would McDavid have to prove to anyone?<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had a lot of very good years, and I wouldn’t categorize last season as one of those,\u201d he said of a 100-point season in 67 games, his lowest in five years. \u201cI’m excited to see how good I can be, motivated to play hockey at the highest level at the Olympics, and to continue to push this group to winning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether people believe me or not when I say that, I feel like I’ve got lots to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, we peppered McDavid\u2019s infield with a few questions about his pending contract, in a wide-ranging conversation. And we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n

But far more intriguing, as McDavid begins his second decade in the NHL, is how he looks back on a 26-goal campaign last year \u2013 the lowest since his rookie season. As if all those times fans yelled \u201cSHOOT THE PUCK!\u201d at their TV have finally crystalized, and the Oilers captain has realized that mere mortals score 26 goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to prove that scoring 50 or 60 is not a one-off,\u201d McDavid, 28, said, his dog Lenny barking in the background. \u201cI’ve had 50 goals, and I’ve had 100 assists, and I like the goals a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughs at that, clearly something a younger McDavid would never have said. But he\u2019s been an NHL captain now for 10 years. He has two Stanley Cup Finals, over 700 games and 14 major NHL awards under his belt.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s comfortable, now, in the skin of a player who can talk the talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, ultimately, I want to help this team win \u2026\u00a0and I’m happy playing the passer role. I’m always going to be that player,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019d like to be just a little bit more \u2014\u00a0not necessarily selfish \u2014\u00a0but assertive with my chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have times where I get the puck in good spots and I’m thinking, \u2018What’s the next play?\u2019 When I should be thinking, \u2018I’m going to score here, I’m going to shoot, or I’m going to take this to the net.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s when my game is at its best. (He\u2019s been) maybe a little bit too pass-first the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

The prairie fall arrives much as it did a year ago, with the bitter memory of a Cup Final loss to Florida lingering in the air, like the dust kicked up by a combine. It shapes McDavid\u2019s team somewhat \u2013 not so much the fact Edmonton lost, but how the Panthers laid down a game that the Oilers simply could not overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fairness to us, it’s not just the Edmonton Oilers that don’t know how to beat it. It seems the rest of league can\u2019t beat it either,\u201d McDavid points out. And that is fair.<\/p>\n

But the loss has set McDavid to thinking \u2014 perhaps re-thinking some things that maybe aren\u2019t always the way they seem.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida and us proved it. Home-ice advantage \u2026 Does it matter? Maybe, but not all that much,\u201d said the captain of a team that won the three series it opened on the road, then lost to Florida despite having home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not where you play, McDavid now knows. It\u2019s how you play. And the team that dictates how the game is played tends to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to master our game,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’re already pretty good at it, but we\u2019ve got to get to a level that nobody can touch. Set a culture and a tone for this year that\u2019s a championship culture. That championship mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sameness is a bit different this season. As Cat Stevens wrote, the first cut is indeed the deepest.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago it was heartbreaking. And you’re a little bit broken, a little bit beaten down emotionally,\u201d McDavid recounted. \u201cThe highs and the lows of the Vancouver series. Our first time winning the West. Being down three and then tying the series up. It was just an emotional swing after emotional swing. Last year was less emotional, less of a roller-coaster. It was less draining, I would say.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody feels a little bit fresher, if that makes sense,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was easier to dust yourself off and get back to work. At least, that’s how I found it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dusting oneself off this September means figuring a new contract for McDavid, and though the circus has already begun it will kick into a higher gear when he meets the Edmonton media on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith me being me \u2014\u00a0in this position, in this market \u2014\u00a0people are going to talk about it. That’s understandable, and that’s fair,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cYou know, we’ve been at this a long time. We’re here to play hockey, we’re here to do a job, and if someone saying something, or writing something, prevents you from doing that, then maybe you’re in the wrong business. The wrong line of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s white noise. That\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening night against the Flames is more than four weeks away. We wondered, what could possibly change between now and then to persuade he and agent Judd Moldaver to bring their contract ask to the collective desk of the Oilers\u2019 front office?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy answer is, nothing needs to change. Nothing. I don’t need to see anything,\u201d McDavid said of the Oilers’ team construct, or what the horizon may look like in Edmonton. \u201cTime is on our side, and I\u2019m just not in a rush to make a decision. We\u2019re having lots of conversations, believe me, as a family, player and agent, (wife) Lauren and I\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not in a rush to make this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014\u00a0To everyone who isn\u2019t cheering for Team Canada at the Olympics, or bleeding the blue and orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-120702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}