Disappointing 2025-26 Season Takes One McDavid Contract Option Off the Table
Squandered cap space and questionable roster moves have pushed the Oilers into a corner. With championship hopes fading, Edmonton no longer has the option to push for a Stanley Cup during the entire duration of Connor McDavid's contract.
Video Transcript
You, we see what happens with the Florida Panthers, and they missed the playoffs this year, and I think that it just, it all adds up when you're going to back to back finals.
Yeah.
you know, for Florida it was three straight trips to the final.
For Edmonton it was only two straight trips, but clearly this is not the same team that we saw last year, in the playoffs.
Mm-hmm.
And I think a lot of us were thinking, "Okay, average team in the regular season.
They're in that pillow fight in the Pacific, but once the playoffs start they will flip a switch and this will be a completely different Oilers team."
Well, it was hard for them to flip that switch.
Mm-hmm.
And partially because Anaheim was just so fast and so young and, you know, well-coached.
And- Right they played the same style they'd been playing pretty much all year, which is just, you know, r- relying on their youth movement, relying on a lot of their veteran, savvy that they have there.
But, you know, it just ended up being too much of a handful for Edmonton, and Edmonton looked very much exposed.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
What's interesting to me about this era of the Oilers is that with every playoffs going in, it occurred to me that they could either lose in the first round or go all the way.
And the past two years they went all the way to the final.
Yeah.
And they certainly could have lost in the first round.
There were tipping points in those Los Angeles series- Yeah where, you know, the Oilers could have lost there.
This year it caught up with them.
And is the window closing?
Yeah.
Certainly, because you look at their flaws and they're difficult to address.
Like forwards, they're fine, you know, especially with Podkolzin and Kapanen stepping up.
Yeah.
you know, 'cause we know McDavid was obviously bothered by something.
Yes.
you know, had some sort of injury.
Yeah.
but if you look at the defense score, you have to ask yourself, like Mattias Ekholm, is he gonna be better next year or slower?
Yeah.
Probably slower.
You know, is Jake Walman gonna be better?
He's, you know, 30 plus.
you know, is Evan Bouchard gonna get better?
Evan Bouchard might get a little better, defensively.
is Darnell Nurse gonna get better?
He better get better.
Yeah.
He has, he has the ability to at his- He has the ability, yeah at his career.
Yeah.
so your defense score's probably not gonna get better un- unless you bring somebody else in via free agency or a trade.
Goaltending, I was looking at the pending free agents.
You're not gonna get Sergei Bobrovsky, otherwise really your only option would be could you lure Freddie Anderson from Carolina?
Freddie.
Maybe that's a possibility.
We'll see.
Does Carolina win the Cup this year?
If they do, maybe Anderson's like, "Hey, I don't, I don't care what happens from here on out.
I have won the Stanley Cup."
but otherwise, like, what do you do for goaltending?
Like, clearly the Ingram-Jarry ex- Jarry experiment, did not work.
Shocking.
So what are you left with?
And they don't have anybody in the pipeline, so that's my concern is I don't know where they turn right now
