The 2025-26 NHL season is just around the corner, and the Edmonton Oilers faithful are still confused and worried about whether the captain, Connor McDavid, will re-sign with the team. On June 19, during his season-ending media availability, McDavid told reporters that he’s not exactly in a hurry to put pen to paper. “I’m going to take some time to regroup. I’m going to talk to my agent a little bit and family and all that, and make some decisions whenever that time comes. But there’s no rush on anything like that.”

Meanwhile, the Oilers’ top brass have also chosen to approach the situation with patience. “We’re very eager to do that whenever they’re ready. I think Connor has earned the right to choose when he wants to get into the details of it, and we’re ready right now; he knows that,” GM Stan Bowman told NHL.com on June 29. Of course, since then, there was no dearth of commentary on how the whole contract negotiation might pan out. However, it seems like we finally have a date as to when the former Conn Smythe trophy winner might re-commit himself to Edmonton.

Radio commentator Bob Stauffer unpacked recent information on McDavid’s contract. He said, “Let’s say by August 28th, which is a Thursday, a month from today, I could foresee a scenario where extensions are done on Colson, Walman, Ekholm, and McDavid. So I’m not moving off it. [Frank] Seravalli and I both said, 100%, that Connor would re-sign.” He also added, “All along, nothing was happening before Leon’s wedding. I could see some traction occurring after that. Oh, and a potential extension for Kris Knobloch as well. So those ones.” For now, Connor McDavid and his wife, Lauren, are set to travel to France next week to attend Draisaitl’s wedding to Celeste Desjardins.

And as Kris Knoblauch enters the final year of his three-year deal, an extension for him also seems quite inevitable. “I think Kris has done a fantastic job,” Stan Bowman said after the conclusion of the NHL draft. “For sure want to get something done with him. The fact that he’s got another year, we got a lot of other stuff we’re going to sort through here, but I do expect to get to that in time.” And when it comes to McDavid’s contract extension, the Oilers could go above and beyond to keep the NHL star.

Connor McDavid might end up signing the biggest deal of all

McDavid, 28, is entering the last of an eight-year, $100 million contract in 2017. And as he is in the last year of his contract, Connor is expected to sign a deal that would break the NHL record for Average Annual Value (AAV), per the Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor. I expect McDavid will sign. I won’t be surprised to see a shorter term of around five years. AAV in $15.5-$16m range,” he wrote on X last month. Is that really justified? Well, Sports Illustrated‘s Jacob Punturi certainly thinks so.

“Pay McDavid more than $15 million per season over the next eight years. Make him the highest paid player per season in the league, a title he’s earned and deserves.” Leon Draisaitl has put pen to paper to sign an 8-year, $112,000,000 contract, which starts from this year and will end in 2032. So, looking at the huge extension Leon got this year, it’s hardly a stretch to speculate an even bigger deal for McDavid.

But while his contract extension talks are going on, some rumors about his trade are also going around. The Maple Leafs, Kings are among the top NHL teams that are associated with the rumors of a potential deal. The Oilers know as much as anyone that it would be a blunder to let McDavid go.