Connor McDavid signed a two-year contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
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With the 2025-26 NHL season set to begin on Tuesday, one of the league’s biggest off-season storylines has been laid to rest.
On Monday, the Edmonton Oilers announced that their captain, Connor McDavid, has signed a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $12.5 million. That matches the rate of his current eight-year contract, which expires at the end of this season, and buys both sides some time.
“It almost seems like this was the perfect compromise for both sides,” said NHL on TNT play-by-play voice Kenny Albert on a media call on Tuesday. “He will stay an Oiler. He’ll remain in Edmonton for at least two more years and they’ll try to get it done. Perhaps if they don’t, two years from now, maybe he will test free agency for the first time. I’m sure in his mind, he wanted to at least have a resolution prior to the start of the regular season, which he did. Now he can focus on things on the ice.”
With the NHL’s salary cap on the rise, McDavid has chosen to forego the maximum compensation that would be available to him — 20 percent of next season’s projected cap ceiling, in the neighbourhood of $20 million a year. But by choosing to re-up for just two years instead of a longer term, he’ll be able to sign again as soon as July 1, 2027, when he’s 30 years old and the maximum will be even higher.
The short guaranteed window of McDavid’s services makes it even more crucial for the Oilers to secure a Stanley Cup as soon as possible.
“It puts in an awful lot of pressure on (GM) Stan Bowman and on the players in that locker room,” added NHL on TNT analyst Brian Boucher. “The time is ticking and I think the I think the expected outcome is that there’s at least one championship in the next three years, if not three. But it says a lot about who he is, as a person and a team guy, to take less to keep the band together and give it one last go.”
With his new extension, McDavid is following in the footsteps of Sidney Crosby. On Sept. 16, 2024, at age 37, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain and three-time champion re-upped for two more seasons at his perennial average annual value of $8.7 million, which matches his No. 87 and his birthdate of 8/7/87.
Crosby and the Penguins will kick off their season on Tuesday against the New York Rangers (8 p.m. ET), as part of ESPN’s season-opening triple-header. McDavid and company begin on Wednesday, hosting the Calgary Flames for the next instalment of the Battle of Alberta (10 p.m. ET).
With McDavid’s status settled, the Calder Trophy race, milestone chases and the new rules surrounding NCAA eligibility will all be major NHL stories to watch this season. But they pale in comparison to these three narratives in the current hockey landscape.
Two-Time Champion Florida Panthers Aim To Join Elite Company
Since the NHL expanded to 12 teams in 1967, only two teams have won more than two consecutive championships. The Montreal Canadiens delivered four in a row from 1976-79, then the New York Islanders followed suit from 1980-83.
In the NHL, the only teams to repeat as champions since the salary cap was introduced in 2005 are the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021 and the reigning champion Florida Panthers, in 2024 and 2025.
This season’s cap jump to $95.5 million helped the Panthers maintain their championship roster by re-signing three key unrestricted free agents — playoff MVP Sam Bennett, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and newly acquired forward Brad Marchand. Long-term injuries to captain Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk will handicap the club out of the gate, but the Panthers have previously proven to be resilient in the face of adversity.
“They’ve got the veteran savvy — they know when to crank it up a notch or two,” Boucher said. “I think a lot of people slept on them last year and they proved everybody wrong, so we’d be foolish to say they can’t do it. But to say that you can do it three years in a row, especially with the injuries that they have… They’re going to get in. I’m not worried about them getting in. Even with Barkov’s injury and Tkachuk being out for a little bit, they’re going to get in. It’s just a matter of if they can get to that level once again. That’ll be the biggest question mark, and it’s hard to do. But I will say, I do love watching them play because they play the game the right way: with skill, with physicality, with personality. To me, it’s very entertaining.”
Sometimes, intangibles can make a massive difference.
“They’ve created a feeling that’s hard to get in this league in terms of expectations and an environment where they know what it takes to win,” added NHL on TNT analyst Henrik Lundqvist. “And sometimes that’s what’s lacking. All teams are good, but you need to create this environment, this atmosphere at the rink where everybody’s on the same page. Then you can have off nights, but still, somehow you find ways to win. There’s so many times you need to find ways to win when you’re not playing great, and I feel like they understand that part of the game.”
The Rising Salary Cap Floats (Almost) All Boats
When Kirill Kaprizov signed his $136-million contract extension last week, he made himself the richest player in NHL history while simultaneously raising the bar for his peers.
With the salary-cap ceiling expected to reach $113.5 million by the 2027-28 season, the league is in an unprecedented growth era which is re-shaping roster economics.
Before Kaprizov inked his new deal with a cap hit of $17 million per season, the league’s highest AAV belonged to Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers, who carries a charge of $14 million this season on the first year of an eight-year deal. Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs is third, at $13.25 million.
After Kaprizov’s deal was signed on Sept. 30, we also saw two young defensemen cash in on long-term contracts. On Oct. 1, Luke Hughes, a 22-year-old restricted free agent, got seven years at a cap hit of $9 million from the New Jersey Devils to bring his contract stalemate to an end — and eclipse his brothers. Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks, the 2024 Norris Trophy winner, has two years remaining on a deal that carries a cap hit of $7.85 million, while Luke’s teammate Jack is going into Year 4 of an eight-year contract at an $8 million cap hit.
One day after Hughes’ deal was signed, the Anaheim Ducks made 24-year-old defenseman Jackson LaCombe the highest-paid player in their franchise’s history when they signed him to an eight-year extension, also at a cap hit of $9 million. Though he’s older, LaCombe’s NHL body of work is almost identical to that of Hughes. But after a breakout season that saw him score 14 goals and put up 43 points on the first season of a two-year deal at just $925,000, LaCombe is now locked in as a foundational piece for the up-and-coming Ducks.
The next young blueliner who’s due for a big raise is 2025 rookie of the year Lane Hutson. On Monday, ESPN Insider Emily Kaplan reported that the Montreal Canadiens balked at an extension that would have come in below $9.5 million. Now, his price has almost certainly gone up.
NHL contracts are guaranteed, and buyouts are onerous when they don’t work out. But reality is setting in that teams are often well-served in locking up their present and future stars as soon as they are able.
The clock is also ticking on contract term limits. After the new collective bargaining agreement officially kicks in on Sept. 15, 2026, teams who re-sign their own players will be working with maximum terms of seven years, down from the current eight years. Maximum terms for free agents who sign with new teams will also drop by one year, from seven down to six.
It will be interesting to see whether McDavid’s decision has a dampening effect on the league’s runaway salary escalation, or if economic forces continue to push contracts to unprecedented heights and help move NHL players closer to the compensation of their peers in other major North American sports.
Olympic Fever Returns, And So Does The Condensed NHL Schedule
After the massive success of last February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, excitement is already at a fever pitch for the return of NHL players to the Olympic stage for the first time since 2014. The field is wider, with 12 nations competing for gold. The first six players for each team were named in June, with full rosters expected to be announced around the end of 2025.
The competition in Milan, Italy, will run from Feb. 11-22, 2026, with the 2025-26 NHL season paused from Feb. 6-24 inclusive. That 19-day break has necessitated tighter scheduling of the regular season, which will conclude on Thursday, April 16. The quest for the Stanley Cup is always gruelling. This year, it’ll be even tougher.