Edmonton\u2019s window to win a Stanley Cup might be slamming shut on Connor McDavid\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
After losing the last two Stanley Cup finals, the Oilers got eliminated by Anaheim in this year\u2019s first round and looked \u201cmediocre\u201d all season, to quote McDavid. (Not exactly what a leader says, no matter how frustrated.)<\/p>\n
What will McDavid do?<\/p>\n
If McDavid never wins a Stanley Cup, it stains his status as a top-five player of all time. Any claim thereof will be statistically-based and have lots of detractors.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve got to win. The current occupants of those spots all did: Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby and Gordie Howe.<\/p>\n
If McDavid has to leave Edmonton to win, that\u2019s a different kind of stain.<\/p>\n
A star should win where he starts. Ray Bourque\u2019s finagled Cup with Colorado at career\u2019s end has a stench about it. Bourque failed in Boston, then rented himself out.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like McDavid is blameless in Edmonton going without a Cup during his tenure.<\/p>\n
The last three times the Oilers got eliminated, McDavid went pointless in that game.<\/p>\n
But McDavid was playoff MVP in 2024 and has 156 points in 102 postseason contests.<\/p>\n
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said McDavid played with a fracture in his foot\/ankle during this year\u2019s playoffs. That sounds both limiting and convenient.<\/p>\n
Edmonton has bigger issues than McDavid occasionally being held off the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
Like goaltending. This parish was unsurprised when Tristan Jarry didn\u2019t solve that problem.<\/p>\n
McDavid, 29, signed a two-year bridge extension this past October. That deal has a reasonable salary-cap hit of $12.5 million, giving the Oilers a bit of financial flexibility to further build around McDavid.<\/p>\n
But not as much room as Crosby has given the Penguins with his cap hit of $8.7 million.<\/p>\n
Guess it depends on how bad you want to win.<\/p>\n
McDavid likely has an exit strategy.<\/p>\n
If Edmonton goes flat again next season, perhaps he leaves the Oilers as early as next year\u2019s NHL trade deadline.<\/p>\n
McDavid has had a checkered career.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no doubting his quality: He\u2019s got six scoring titles and three regular-season MVPs.<\/p>\n
McDavid certainly passes the eye test: He\u2019s the best ever when it comes to executing at blurry speed. That\u2019s his superpower.<\/p>\n
But he isn\u2019t the face of hockey. That\u2019s still Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, even at 38 and 40, respectively.<\/p>\n
Part of that is playing in Edmonton. (At least Crosby and Ovechkin had the time zone working in their favor.)<\/p>\n
Part of that is having had charisma bypass surgery. (McDavid is a sourpuss.)<\/p>\n
Part of that is not winning.<\/p>\n
After the Penguins were eliminated, some dopey hockey blogger went on X and posted all of the team\u2019s playoff failures since 2018 and said that \u201cSidney Crosby is running out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby has three Stanley Cups and six international gold medals.<\/p>\n
McDavid is the one running out of time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton\u2019s window to win a Stanley Cup might be slamming shut on Connor McDavid\u2019s legacy. After losing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-622998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}