CALGARY — Connor McDavid’s words should crackle and pop like a lightning storm on a humid summer night.
Just three weeks out from the start of Edmonton Oilers training camp, the NHL’s best player arrived at Team Canada’s Olympic orientation camp and told reporters Wednesday that he had no preference when it came to the possibility of getting a contract extension in place ahead of the season.
“I’d say all options are on the table, really,” he said.
Critically, McDavid said he needed more time to evaluate the decision with the potential of unrestricted free agency looming on July 1, 2026.
He certainly didn’t sound any further along in his process than he was two months ago when he met the media following the Oilers’ second straight Stanley Cup Final defeat at the hands of the Florida Panthers. At that point, the 28-year-old Oilers captain clearly laid out what he needed to see before committing to re-signing.
“If I feel that there’s a good window to win here over and over again, then signing is no problem,” McDavid said in June.
Since then, the Oilers have re-signed top defenseman Evan Bouchard to a four-year extension and shuffled the deck among the forward group — adding Andrew Mangiapane, Curtis Lazar and 21-year-old Isaac Howard, while losing Evander Kane, Viktor Arvidsson, Corey Perry and Connor Brown.
They appear poised to return with the same goaltending tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, both of whom are on expiring contracts of their own.
Viewed in aggregate, it’s difficult to categorize the series of moves as a clear roster upgrade, and yet there almost seemed to be an outside perception in recent weeks that McDavid would simply follow the lead of teammate Leon Draisaitl from a year ago by signing an extension in early September.
That could still happen, but it’s far from a certainty given the public posture McDavid adopted at the outset of the Olympic camp. He reiterated his intention to win a Stanley Cup in Edmonton, but he wasn’t prepared to say whether that pursuit would continue beyond the expiry of his existing deal after the upcoming 2025-26 season.
His short-term goals are obvious. Life beyond next summer is not.
“I have every intention to win in Edmonton,” said McDavid. “It’s my only focus, maybe next to winning the (Olympic) gold medal with Canada. But it is my intention to win there.”
He made those comments while sitting alongside players who already have what he craves most: Sidney Crosby, his one-time idol and a three-time Stanley Cup champion, and Sam Reinhart, who was on the winning side of the past two Finals with Florida.
Sam Reinhart, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby speak to the media Wednesday. (Leah Hennel / Getty Images)
McDavid has left absolutely no stone unturned in his own pursuit of a championship. The word coming out of summer training sessions in suburban Toronto is that he’s been a man possessed. And he’s already established himself as the singular performer among the current generation of NHLers, having racked up eight 100-point regular seasons while leading the playoffs in scoring three of the past four years.
Arguably the only thing keeping him from a spot on the sport’s Mount Rushmore is a hoisted Stanley Cup.
At 28, he’s still triangulating how best to accomplish that. Finishing the job in Edmonton alongside his close friend and long-time running mate Draisaitl would obviously be ideal. But that dream has to be measured against the reality that the Oilers felt they lost ground to the Panthers between the two Cup losses.
McDavid is also clearly trying to wrap his mind around the potential ramifications for his teammates if he’s not ready to sign an extension before the season opens Oct. 8 against the Calgary Flames.
It would create a seismic story that reverberates well beyond Edmonton. It would be the source of questions, league-wide speculation and endless discussion as possible free agency drew nearer. But would it impede the other professionals McDavid shares a dressing room with from doing their jobs next season?
“I want the group to be as focused and dialed-in and ready to roll come Day 1 as possible,” he said. “You know, we don’t need any distractions.”
There’s not really any precedent for what it might look or feel like if McDavid actually elects to enter his season with no new deal in place. Other superstars have done it — including Mitch Marner as recently as last season with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs on the way to leveraging a June 30 sign-and-trade to the Vegas Golden Knights — but no one like McDavid.
Hockey only has one McJesus.
And he alone will dictate how this ultimately plays out.
That’s why we should all sit up and take notice when McDavid speaks with so little urgency about a contract the Oilers would literally sign at any moment of any day right now. They’d do it for any terms allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, too. If McDavid wants the max — currently eight years at $19.1 million per season (20 percent of the cap) — he can get it. So the fact that he’s now openly talking about possibly letting this drift into the season is pretty significant.
“(I’m taking) my time, going through it with obviously my family, my agent, everybody involved,” McDavid said. “We’re going through it slowly.”
The longer this goes, the more interesting it’s going to get.
(Photo: Leah Hennel / Getty Images)