{"id":122501,"date":"2025-09-05T19:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122501\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:12:07","slug":"friday-four-why-mcdavid-shouldnt-sign-extension-for-more-than-1-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122501\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Four: Why McDavid shouldn\u2019t sign extension for more than 1-2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week is:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 McDavid\u2019s best move is a short-term extension with the Oilers<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Devils trying to navigate complicated Luke Hughes<\/a> extension<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Bruins need a major bounce back from Swayman<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Nazar\u2019s deal could be a steal for the Blackhawks<\/p>\n

Whether it was the winning goal at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a gorgeous setup to Leon Draisaitl in the Stanley Cup Final or walking through nearly the entire New York Rangers team a few years ago, Connor McDavid has delivered endless dazzling plays over the course of his career. But right now, the only highlight Edmonton Oilers fans want to see is McDavid putting pen to paper.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just mere days away from training camp, and the best player in the world still hasn\u2019t signed a contract extension. In a vacuum, that shouldn\u2019t be cause for concern. McDavid won\u2019t actually become a free agent for almost another year, but the fact that more than two months have passed since McDavid became eligible to extend and the two sides haven\u2019t agreed to terms suggests this likely won\u2019t be a standard long-term extension. He is in a position to name his price and term, and the fact McDavid hasn\u2019t done so yet means he\u2019s pondering different options.<\/p>\n

At this point, there\u2019s absolutely no reason to believe those options don\u2019t include the Oilers. McDavid\u2019s desire to win appears to be all-consuming, and there are few better places than Edmonton to accomplish that goal as it stands now. The Oilers have advanced to back-to-back finals with their nucleus of players, and their path to return shouldn\u2019t be as bumpy as some other avenues. The Pacific is arguably the weakest division at the moment, with teams like Anaheim, San Jose, Seattle and Calgary still far from contending. Vancouver is a question mark, and the Oilers have had the Los Angeles Kings\u2019 number in the past four post-seasons. Vegas will provide a real challenge, but the reality is the journey back to a deep playoff run figures to be much easier in the Pacific than it would be in the Central or Atlantic, for example.<\/p>\n

The Oilers roster is in good shape, too. Sure, it has flaws, but you won\u2019t find a better running mate than Leon Draisaitl, and there is enough talent with players like Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to build around for a while still. McDavid\u2019s next contract isn\u2019t so much a question of team, but rather one of money and term.<\/p>\n

In this case, the money probably isn\u2019t as complicated as the term. McDavid\u2019s main goal is to win, so he\u2019s likely willing to take a little less if it helps the Oilers stay flexible with the cap and continually make improvements to the roster. The term is where it gets interesting. We\u2019re used to players taking max term at McDavid\u2019s age, but that wouldn\u2019t make sense for him if he\u2019s solely focused on a championship. There\u2019s no telling what the competitive landscape will look like in the NHL in three or four years, which is why McDavid shouldn\u2019t extend for more than one or two seasons now.<\/p>\n

The reasons why Edmonton is a good destination today may not hold true in a few years. The Pacific could be a much tougher division at that point, and the Oilers’ roster might face challenges as well. By the 2027-28 campaign, Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins will be in their mid-thirties and likely starting to regress.<\/p>\n

Key contributors on the back end, like Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman and Brett Kulak aren\u2019t signed beyond this year, and Darnell Nurse\u2019s contract may really become an anchor soon. Not to mention the goaltending struggles, which the Oilers have yet to remedy. <\/p>\n

McDavid and Draisaitl have been exceptional in the post-season, and Edmonton still hasn\u2019t been able to win it all. It\u2019s hard to imagine that either player has any more to give. If Edmonton is going to be a real contender a few years from now, McDavid and Draisaitl are going to need a lot more help. If it isn\u2019t provided, a short-term extension keeps McDavid flexible to explore better opportunities.<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s probably not his top priority, there is also a financial reason for McDavid to only extend for a year or two right now. The largest percentage of the salary cap a player can sign for is 20 per cent and with the cap jumping big time over the next few seasons, McDavid could increase his AAV every year on a series of one-year deals. He could theoretically become the league\u2019s highest-paid player and maintain a hold on that status by going this route.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare to see a player of McDavid\u2019s calibre take a short-term deal, but not so in other sports like the NBA. LeBron James frequently took shorter deals to try and maximize earnings and leave himself the flexibility to find the best spot to win. McDavid now finds himself in a similar position, where his value is so immense to any franchise that he can write his own ticket and map out the course for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n

If McDavid does go down this road, Oilers fans shouldn\u2019t hit the panic button. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019ll leave in a couple of years, and it would put pressure on the organization to get better. A short-term extension could be a message from McDavid to the team that says: if you fix the goaltending, improve the forward depth and solidify the blue line, there\u2019s no reason not to stick around. <\/p>\n

McDavid may hold all the cards, but it\u2019s in the Oilers’ hands to make sure he stays long-term.<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Devils and RFA Luke Hughes appear to be at an impasse when it comes to his next contract. <\/p>\n

Reports surfaced last week<\/a> that the Devils are hoping to lock Hughes up for eight years or go the bridge route for three years, but the defenceman wants to meet in the middle for a very specific reason. Hughes is eyeing a five-year pact, which would make him an unrestricted free agent the same year his brother Jack would hit the open market. The Devils probably want to avoid this scenario, but if Hughes gets his way, it could make for a very interesting summer in 2030.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just assume for a second Hughes lands his five-year deal, and he and his brother would both be free agents at the same time. The Devils would have to try and extend each of them before they hit the market and ensure they have enough cap space to do so. Even with how high the cap will likely be by then, it would be a tricky task for any team to sign two substantial contracts at the same time.<\/p>\n

If both players opted to test free agency, they\u2019d almost certainly come as a package deal, and that situation could be even more challenging. You rarely see teams land two big-name players in the same summer simply because of a lack of cap space, but if it looks like the Hughes brothers are preparing to test free agency simultaneously, you can bet organizations are going to try and create the flexibility to secure them both.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t even take into account Quinn Hughes and his future plans. It\u2019s all currently speculation, but some believe all three brothers would like to play together at some point and why wouldn\u2019t they? Quinn has two more years left on his current deal with the Vancouver Canucks and it remains to be seen how that ends up. Vancouver will likely want to know what his future plans are next summer so they can have a contingency plan in place if he isn\u2019t planning to re-sign. If the trio do ultimately end up on the same team eventually, it\u2019s likely going to take some creative cap maneuvering to make it happen.<\/p>\n

The Boston Bruins found themselves in unfamiliar territory at the end of last season. Boston finished tied for last in the Eastern Conference and missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign.<\/p>\n

A big reason for that was that the Bruins didn\u2019t get the goaltending they\u2019ve relied on so much in recent years. Jeremy Swayman posted the worst numbers of his career, with an .892 save percentage and a goals against average over three. It was Swayman\u2019s first real test with a full starter\u2019s workload, and he didn\u2019t pass. Part of the problem was missing training camp due to a contract negotiation that dragged on until early October, and Swayman looked a step behind all season.<\/p>\n

Heading into 2025-26, Swayman will now have the benefit of a full camp in hopes of regaining the form that earned him an eight-year, $66 million contract. He\u2019ll have to in order to justify that deal. Earning more than $8 million per year makes Swayman one of the highest-paid goaltenders in the league, and it\u2019s hard to have success when you allocate that much of your cap to a netminder who\u2019s not performing up to their standards.<\/p>\n

If Swayman can bounce back, though, the Bruins have a real chance to surprise some people. When he\u2019s at his best, there aren\u2019t too many goalies who can play the position better than Swayman, as his 2024 playoff run would attest. Swayman finished with a .933 save percentage and gave the Florida Panthers all they could handle in the second round.<\/p>\n

Expectations for the Bruins heading into this season are probably as low as they\u2019ve been in quite some time, and there\u2019s a different feel around the team. Brad Marchand\u2019s departure at last year\u2019s trade deadline was the last piece of the old Boston guard to move on, and David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy and Swayman are now the official faces of the team. If the Bruins hope to contend for a playoff spot, they\u2019ll need Herculean efforts from all three, and Swayman will not only have to bounce back, but perhaps take his game to an even greater level than it\u2019s been before.<\/p>\n

It only took Frank Nazar 56 games to earn a very lucrative contract extension from the Blackhawks. The 21-year-old signed a seven-year deal worth $46.13 million, making it the largest pact for a player with that little experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly a small sample size, but it\u2019s a good bet by Chicago. Nazar still has some developing to do, though you can already see he\u2019s only scratching the surface of his abilities. The Blackhawks forward finished last season on a tear, scoring nine points in his final eight games. He also started to earn more of the coaching staff\u2019s trust. In December, Nazar was averaging less than 14 minutes of ice time per game, but by April, that had jumped to more than 17 minutes a night. Nazar then carried that strong finish to the NHL season over to international play, where he helped the United States win the world hockey championship for the first time since 1933, tallying 12 points in 10 contests at the tournament.<\/p>\n

Chicago is also trying to get ahead of the curve with this contract. With the cap skyrocketing over the next few years, Nazar\u2019s $6.59 million cap hit may seem a tad risky now, but could age very well in time. In three years, the cap will rise all the way up to $113.5 million, so if Nazar\u2019s ceiling is even only a 60-point player, it\u2019s still really good value. If he ends up scoring at a point per game, then it\u2019s an absolute steal for the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

Chicago will be hoping for the latter. They\u2019ve had a difficult time finding talent to play with Connor Bedard externally, so Nazar might be a temporary internal solution. If Nazar can hold down the second line centre spot as well, that would take some of the pressure off Bedard when it comes to playing important minutes, and the duo could team up on the power play, where the Blackhawks actually had a top-10 unit last season. There hasn\u2019t been much to celebrate in Chicago over the past few years, but the Nazar contract is a small win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player storylines from around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-122501","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\/122501","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=122501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}