STANDOFF: Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers Still Unable to Agree on a Contract Extension
The Conor McDavid negotiations continue to be at a standstill. Nick Cerraris of Locked On Oilers is here to talk about that and whether or not the Oilers have what it takes to return to the cup final this year. All that and more on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. [Music] You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Locked On NHL podcast. We are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks to everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. It’s great to welcome back to the show the host of Locked on Oilers, Nick Zeras. And uh Nick, it’s on a lot of people’s minds right now. Conor McDavid still in contract limbo. Where are we at and what’s the hold up here? So from everything we’ve heard, the Oilers have said whatever he wants, he’s going to get. I just don’t know if he knows what he wants. We were talking about it before we started recording. The logic would tell you you do a two, a three, the longest, a four-year deal like what Austin Matthews did with Toronto a couple years ago. But for him, if it’s about winning, I can’t tell you stining with the Oilers for seven or eight years is in your best interest. I I I think once you look past some of the the bright spots, you you have Bard for another four years, you got Dry Cidle for seven more years. Beyond that, Hyman’s in his early 30s. Noo is in his early 30s. Those are their last two top six guys for sure. The rest of the group is going to be a real rotating cast. Andrew Mioani has one 30 goal season under his belt. His career averaging for goals in a season is like 14. Trent Frederick’s career averaging goals in a season is 13. They’re betting on European free agents like David Tomas, who great player in the Swedish league, led the league in points last year. You have no idea if he’s going to be a top sixer or if he’s going to be in Bakersfield in the AHL because he needs to get used to North American hockey. Matias Ekholm is a free agent at the end of this year. Jake Walman is a free agent at the end of this year. Both the goalies are free agents at the end of this year. So if you’re Conor McDavid and you’re looking at this and winning is your number one priority, you can’t look at this team and say this is a Stanley Cup caliber team. Look, Savo Ike Howard, a lot of upside there and that’s tantalizing. the magic box, the prospect that can be anything is it’s enticing for us as fans, as people on the outside looking in. But he has to know more likely than not the last two years they made two cup finals. Those are probably the best kicks at the can they’re going to have for a little while. They probably need not a reset, but they’re going to need to reconfigure this team in a year or two because a lot of the supporting cast is either older or it’s coming up on time for new contracts. And when you get to this inflection point, you have to really, it’s a real sliding doors moment. And we were talking about it earlier. They’ve lost basically an entire bottom six of players. Cory Perry, they lost Cory Perry, Conor Brown. Last year, you lose Warren Fogle. You have to trade away Ryan Mloud for cap considerations. You lose four or five guys. Derek Ryan retires guys. And that they just have so many question marks in this forward group. been the prevailing theme of lockdown Oilers all summer is I don’t know what this lineup could possibly look like because I don’t think the Oilers know what it’s going to look like yet. So where do you see this going? How does this play out most likely? My assumption is we’ll do what most star players do where if that we get to that second week of October, the 7th, 8th, whenever the season starts and there’s no contract, I think we’re gonna table this for a while. I don’t think this is going to be something that they’re going to do in the course of the season. I still think there’s enough time that they can get this done before the start of the regular season. Still got a good two and a half, three weeks. It’s not the end of the world, but at I said in mid to late July that if Stan Bowman can’t get this done, that if the Oilers can’t get a McDavid extension done and he they either need to trade him in season to get something or if he walks on July 1st of next year, that is the biggest organizational failure imaginable. And you can look at the Mish Marner situation in Toronto, the John Tavvar situation with the Islanders where those were teams that were actively trying to make the playoffs. You cannot in good conscience say, “Well, we got to trade this guy. We got to get something. We got to do something.” Because then you’re you’re giving up on the season. You’re not competing if you’re trading the best player on your team. And it’s a real oxymoronic situation where you have to be able to prioritize both right now because they’re probably fourth, fifth best team in the West. But you also need to be considerate of the fact you have dryidle for seven years. You have Bard for four. Beyond that, this team is a massive blank slate. Yeah, they have guys under contract like Heyman, like Nan Hopkins, but the impact of those guys is going to continue to diminish over time. And this team just does not have a lot set in stone right now. I think it’ll get done. I think it’ll be something in the ballpark of two or three years and 16 to 17 billion per year. That would be my guess. That’s not inside information. That’s just reading the tea leaves. I think it’s in his interest to wait to go long. I think if you really want to win and you want to maximize your money, it works to his interest because the cap will keep going up over time and if the Oilers aren’t good two years from now, he can leverage his way to somewhere else in a trade or if he wants to get to unrestricted free agency and turn it into an outright bidding war. It it is entirely in his interest to go short here. Whereas the Oilers, of course, would like to do the same thing they did with Dryside. him the 8-year deal and not worry about it for the next eight years. Talk to me about you. We we we mentioned some of the guys who have left. Talk to me about some of the new faces who may help this team this year. So, the big one is Andrew Mapani. And the way I described it, I’ve been talking about it all summer. The Oilers had a choice and Stan Bowman said, “I would rather have one more forward who’s worth about three and a half$4 million per season than I would rather upgrade Steuart Skinner.” Because that’s about the price point there. They could have got John Gibson for what the Red Wings traded, but that cap difference of about 3 million for Skinner and Pickard combined to the 6 million or so John Gibson’s owed, that’s one more top nine forward. And the Oilers supposition is having one extra top nine forward is more important than upgrading the goalie. And Stan Bowman can point to each of the last two years and say they were good enough to get us there. The first time we’re one goal away from winning the whole thing. They are not the problem here. We need to get what’s around them right. And in addition to Mioapani, you hope Trent Frederick, who was pretty underwhelming in the playoffs, dealing with a bad wheel, lower body injury, so hopefully a little healthier. Somebody they really gambled on. You know, like I said, Trent Frederick’s career average in goals in a season is 13, and they locked him up for seven years. And he doesn’t really have a track record of playing top six minutes. He doesn’t really have a track record of being a play driver, a really impactful offensive player, but they like him as the Evander Kane replacement, the no hard-nosed forch checker. So I would put him in that new faces box even though he was on the team in the postseason. David Tomask who I mentioned with from the Swedish Elite League European free agent. Someone an arc type that Stan Bowman has had success with back dating back to his time in Chicago signing Paneran probably the most successful one. Couple goalies, couple depth forwards as well. And then you’re talking about fringe guys. You know the Ike Howard trade. I have no idea what to expect from Ike Howard. He was playing college hockey last year. You know, you go from playing 37 38 regular season games, you only play two or three times a week in a very short span of time to 82 games. It wouldn’t shock me if he was in the AHL for stretches this year if he has a hard time adapting to the speed of the game. Same thing with Savois. Savois was really good in the AHL last year, but the leap from the AHL to the NHL, especially in a top six role, it’s going to be asking a lot. And with especially when no Zach Heyman for at least the first month of the season coming back from that broken wrist they have massive questions. Is Mapani playing on the left or the right? Is he playing with McDavid or Dry Cidle? Are they going to keep Pod Coulson with dry citle because they like that tandem a lot last year even though Pod Coulson only had 11 12 goals. They like the underlying results and they think maybe there’s more juice to squeeze there. But past that, okay, if Nan Hopkins is going to be the third line center, which all signs indicate it will be, you’re paying Adam Henrik to be a $3.7 million fourthline center, that’s not a great look for anybody. They the way the roster is assembled right now. It’s really contingent on the guys who don’t have track record. Savval, Howard, Tomas, and then I would say Frederick, Majapani, bounceback candidates, but they have a lot more uncertainty. And it’s weird because the Oilers are an old team and old teams generally don’t have this much uncertainty in their mix, but this group, man, the saving grace is going to be the defense. I mean, they’re bringing back all six guys from the defense last year, and that’s really the strength of the team, and there’s volatility there, but I think the defense gives them a high enough floor that they’ll hang around. It’s just a matter of if any of these forwards, especially the unproven ones, are able to be successful. That I think is going to be the story of this season. We know what you’re going to get from Connor, from Leon, from Evan Buchard. But beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. We shall see. It’ll be an interesting season up in Edmonton. Nick, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you on social media? You can find Lockdown Oilers on all the major podcasting platforms and over on YouTube. And on socials, it’s Nick Seraris or Nicksarus Sports. Thanks for having me, Gil. All right, Nick. Thank you. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And if you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. 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The negotiations between the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid are still ongoing. The team has yet to reach a new deal with their super star player.
Nick Zararis of Locked On Oilers joins us to discuss the standoff, where things are likely headed and why and the key newcomers the Oilers are hoping can keep the team at an elite level this season.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
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