Another round of questions surrounding Connor McDavid, another press conference left without any sort of tangible evidence there has been any movement whatsoever in signing a contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers.
On Wednesday, it was general manager Stan Bowman’s turn. And he didn’t have much to say beyond the Oilers would really, really, really like to have their captain back. No, for real.
So far, all the fans have heard since July 1 might as well have been crickets.
It’s enough to drive them crazy.
Will he sign an extension? When will he sign an extension? Why hasn’t he signed an extension already? What the heck happens if he doesn’t sign an extension soon?
But here’s a wildly crazy notion: Would it really be the end of the world in Edmonton if McDavid doesn’t end up re-signing here?
The topic might as well be taboo among fans in the city, but that doesn’t make it any less worthwhile to at least consider. Are we saying it will happen? Not at all. After all, he has said time and time again he’d like nothing more than to win a Stanley Cup here and cement his legacy with the only NHL team he’s ever been a part of.
But if that’s the case, then why hasn’t he already put pen to paper? Bottom line, it’s not exactly out of the realm of possibility to have the sky fall upon Alberta’s capital. After all, it’s happened here before.
Think about it, after Wayne Gretzky — the greatest player of all time — was dealt to the L.A. Kings, the Oilers went on to win a Stanley Cup without him. And that’s one more Cup than they’ve won in the first 10 years of McDavid’s professional career.
Now, I’m not suggesting this roster is comparable at all with the one coming out of the ’80’s dynasty era. Nor am I here to try and convince anyone McDavid’s departure would be a good thing. Or that that things might still turn out OK. In fact, it is hands down the worst thing that could happen to the franchise.
Nothing would leave a more post-apocalyptic feel around Edmonton, aside from the actual apocalypse, perhaps. And heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe what Oilers fans would feel watching him take to the ice in any colours other than orange and blue. But would it have to mean the absolute end of the world for this team?
Maybe.
Then again, maybe not?
Could it be deja vu?
Not exactly. The image of apples and oranges is more likely to appear.
Sure, Gretzky left when he was 28, which is the same age McDavid is now. The biggest difference, of course, is this is entirely McDavid’s decision, whereas nobody asked Gretzky if he’d prefer to stick around. The mess of tears falling on the podium in his farewell press conference showed exactly how he felt about leaving Edmonton. And Gretzky never won another Cup afterwards.
By that point, it was all coming apart at the seams for then-owner Peter Pocklington, who could no longer afford to keep the good ol’ gang together.
G-MAN’S TAKE: To be clear, this is not that. But the end result is the same. It wouldn’t hurt any less for Oilers fans to have to live through losing the best player in the game a second time around. In both cases, it’s out of their control.
Is there any evidence it could work?
The one shining example that can’t be overlooked in this whole strange scenario is Mark Messier.
Remember him? The next-best thing to the Great One, who not only led the charge to that Gretzky-less championship in 1990, but went on to captain an ex-Oilers heavy New York Rangers to one four years later.
And it’s not hard to see similarities between those two Oilers legends and the current dynamic duo of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
G-MAN’S TAKE: Let’s not forget crisis also affords opportunity. It’s not much of a stretch to suggest Messier wasn’t able to realize his full potential until Gretzky was no longer on the team.
Edmonton Oilers forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl look on during the first period against the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on June 6, 2025 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Could Draisaitl take over the helm?
No player in the league, let alone two on the same team, has put up more points than either of Edmonton’s two top dogs since they began running the yard in 2016. They sit No. 1 and 2 in overall point production in their time together, with McDavid’s quadruple-digit 1,082 (361 goals, 721 assists) in 361 games leading the way ahead of Draisaitl’s 947 points (397 goals, 550 assists) in 397 games.
But truth be told, McDavid is, hands down, the best player in the game in the big picture, but the argument could be made he wasn’t exactly been the top player on this team last year.
Draisaitl, meanwhile, is coming off a season spent leading the NHL in goal scoring. And he did it with a veritable turn style of wingmen on his second line, when he wasn’t moved up to bolster McDavid on the top line.
It wouldn’t be the same with him left holding just one side of the Oilers’ elite equation, and nobody around here would ever want to see the pair split up. But history has shown Draisaitl can be at his best regardless of who is playing beside him.
Would the sidekick be as good on his own, without the superhero in the picture? Of course not. They both make each other better.
G-MAN’S TAKE: The Oilers would still have the second-best centre in the league on their top line, should McDavid end up leaving. And that’s more than the 30 other markets where he didn’t land could say, at that point.
What would it mean for the salary cap?
Let’s get one thing straight, there is no possible way to replace Connor McDavid. Just like the only way to replace Draisaitl would be to somehow clone another McDavid.
But sci-fi fantasies aside, there is a real-world impact such a scenario would have on the salary cap. And it’s sizeable. Before Draisaitl signed his own extension last year — for a then-record $14 million a season averaged over eight years, no less — McDavid was the highest paid player on the roster.
While he’s making $12.5 million here in his final year of this contract, an extension would likely bump him up somewhere in the range of $16 million next year, if not higher.
And that would be a huge pile of money that could instead go to fill at least part of the hole he leaves behind.
All of a sudden, a cash-strapped Oilers club that has become accustomed to paying for the mistakes of past GMs, and had to scrimp to make even the most modest of trade-deadline moves, would find itself with available options.
None of them would compare to bringing McDavid back. But perhaps there is a alternate way to build the championship puzzle, and the right pieces just aren’t in the box yet.
Say there was a franchise goaltender management had its eye on, or a puck-moving elite defenceman to shore up the blue line and help quarterback the power play back to prominence. Or any other multitude of performance parts to soup up the machine they’ve been building. The Oilers could put themselves in the running on the open market, which has all but become uncharted territory lately.
G-MAN’S TAKE: The saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, after all. And that’s true no matter if the strongest link is the best player in the game right now.
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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