Connor McDavid signs 2-year, $25M contract extension with Edmonton Oilers

Oil Country is smiling now as the Oilers captain is staying in orange and blue for at least the next three seasons. James Dunn caught up with fans on Whyte Avenue.

By Sportsnet Staff

Hockey’s biggest star is staying in Edmonton.

Connor McDavid and the Oilers agreed on a two-year, $25 million contract extension, the team announced Monday.

“Connor’s commitment to our team and our city is surpassed only by his singular focus on bringing a Stanley Cup back to fans of the Edmonton Oilers,” executive vice president of hockey operations and general manager Stan Bowman said in a statement.

The deal comes in much lower than Kirill Kaprizov’s record-setting eight-year, $136 million ($17 million AAV) contract with the Minnesota Wild.

McDavid made the decision to stay in Edmonton on Monday and hammered out the contract soon after, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported.

The agreement ends speculation around McDavid’s potential departure one season before the three-time Hart Trophy winner was set to hit free agency.

McDavid had repeated through multiple interviews in the lead-up to the 2025-26 season that he intended to take his time in arriving at a deal, but that he had “every intention” to win in Edmonton.

The Oilers and McDavid have come oh-so-close to doing just that in the past two seasons, seeing their title hopes dashed by the same Florida Panthers team in back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances.

For his part, McDavid has continued to produce at a near-unprecedented level throughout his 10-year NHL career. Over 67 regular-season games in 2024-25, the 28-year-old totalled 100 points and 26 goals — totals that were labelled a “down season” for Edmonton’s captain.

McDavid has consistently ranked among the NHL’s leading point-getters, having collected 1,082 of them in just 712 career games and sits third in league history with his 1.52 points per game.

McDavid, who helped Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February and is set to headline the NHL’s Olympic return in Italy next year, breathed life into the bumbling Oilers when he arrived in town.

A generational talent with breathtaking speed, skill and vision, the Newmarket, Ont., product helped Edmonton snap a 10-season playoff drought in 2017.

Two springs without post-season competition then preceded a pair of pandemic-impacted campaigns that ended with little success.

The Oilers finally broke through in 2022 by making the Western Conference final for the first time since 2006 — McDavid registered an outrageous 33 points in 16 games — but were swept by the Colorado Avalanche, who went onto hoist the Cup.

Edmonton lost out to the Vegas Golden Knights, another eventual title-winning club, in the second round in 2023 before beating the Dallas Stars in back-to-back conference finals.

Like the rest of the league, however, the Oilers had no answer for the relentless Panthers.

Asked about his future following Edmonton’s six-game defeat to Florida in June’s championship series, McDavid spoke about “trying to get it over that finish line” and “unfinished business” with the Oilers.

He also made it clear that’s far from his only priority.

“Ultimately, still need to do what’s best for me and my family,” McDavid said at Rogers Place. “That’s who you have to take care of first.”

Now, with their future settled, McDavid and the Oilers will now turn their focus to the ice as they look to breakthrough and bring the Stanley Cup back to Edmonton.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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