{"id":197627,"date":"2025-09-18T02:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/197627\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T02:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:09:15","slug":"well-still-be-good-in-five-years-honest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/197627\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ll still be good in five years, honest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> aren\u2019t going to win Connor McDavid<\/a> over with money. This isn\u2019t a negotiation \u2014 he will sign for whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants.<\/p>\n

And you can dismiss the notion that his options are limited because only one or two other contenders in the NHL can afford to fit him in. If McDavid\u2019s agent phones any team in the league and says his guy wants to play there, they will make it work.<\/p>\n

They aren\u2019t negotiating term, either. If McDavid tells them he wants a two-year deal, which means three more years in Edmonton, the Oilers aren\u2019t going to say \u201cSorry Connor, it needs to be six. Let\u2019s talk again in a week, but we\u2019re pretty firm on the six-year thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with the money, McDavid will sign for as long as he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants.<\/p>\n

This is about the future.<\/p>\n

The Oilers need to show that they are going to be a top contender until the end of the decade, at least. And we\u2019re not talking about being a really good team simply because McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard play on it \u2014 the last 10 years have proven that\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

McDavid needs to know that the Oilers will not only sustain their momentum throughout his next (hopefully) contract, but actually improve on it because they still aren\u2019t as good as the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

McDavid has said many times that he has full confidence in the 2025-26 team, but what about beyond that?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where GM Stan Bowman and hockey operations boss Jeff Jackson and even owner Daryl Katz have to do their convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(McDavid) has a really good pulse on the team, as the leader and the captain he has thoughts on things and I want to understand that so I can work together on that,\u201d Bowman said at his media availability before training camp opens Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does ask me where I envision things (beyond this season). It\u2019s not about just one thing, but (conversations) definitely do touch on the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Oilers want to keep McDavid here for another long-term deal, and not just a two-year farewell tour, they have to make this situation look as appealing as possible because, as of right now, McDavid says his future in Edmonton \u201cremains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have time,\u201d he said in a SportsNet interview. \u201cIt\u2019s our decision. Basically, we\u2019ve earned that. And we\u2019re gonna take our time with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair enough.<\/p>\n

McDavid worked his whole life to be in this position \u2014 one season away from becoming one of the most coveted unrestricted free agent in sports history \u2014 so there is every chance, and every reason to believe, that he is at least contemplating it.<\/p>\n

What if you were an Edmonton kid who worked 10 years for a company on the other side of North America and had a great run, establishing yourself as the best in your profession and were a millionaire 100 times over? And what if, when your contract was up, you could choose anywhere in the world you wanted to work?<\/p>\n

Would you at least consider somewhere else? Or would you sign for eight more years before your last contract had even expired?<\/p>\n

And if you were an Edmonton kid, would you consider coming back home, where all of your family and friends are, where your parents could watch you all the time, where you could set start a new family surrounded by existing family?<\/p>\n

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then you might have some sense of the options Edmonton\u2019s captain is weighing.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s on the Oilers to show him something. Soon.<\/p>\n

It starts, one would suppose, at training camp, where we\u2019ll get our first glimpse of what that future might look like in a world were the aging Oilers, the second oldest team in the NHL, don\u2019t have a lot of draft picks.<\/p>\n

With Matt Savoie, acquired in a trade for Ryan McLeod, and Ike Howard, the NCAA free agent, the Oilers are hoping to see a pair of 21-year-olds who are on their way to becoming next-generation impact players. And with a handful of free agents from Europe, led by Swedish league-leading scorer David Tomasek, we get a sense of what Bowman\u2019s assembly line might look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of different ways to do it in the NHL,\u201d Bowman said of going the free-agent route. \u201cSome teams are focused all on draft picks, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But where the Oilers are in their evolution, with the Cup window still open, late first-rounders and beyond aren\u2019t what they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless those draft picks are in the top five, those guys aren\u2019t going to help you for a couple of years. We\u2019re bringing guys in who can help us right away, like (defenceman Jake) Walman.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also showing they still have an eye on the future by courting and investing in unsigned European and NCAA talent, like Howard, Tomasek and Quinn Hutson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the approach that makes the most sense right now,\u201d said Bowman. \u201cIt won\u2019t always be that way, but for now, with what we want to do, with our player development having taken on a bigger role, it\u2019s important to get the talent from wherever we can, whatever age they are, and seeing in a year or two if they can become the players we want them to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if it works. Given the stakes, it\u2019s kind of important that it does.<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers aren\u2019t going to win Connor McDavid over with money. This isn\u2019t a negotiation \u2014 he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[155,198,146,5300,425,57,5,370,4,24,4466,6269,4835],"class_list":{"0":"post-197627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-connor-mcdavid","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-evan-bouchard","13":"tag-florida-panthers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-leon-draisaitl","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-oilers","18":"tag-ryan-mcleod","19":"tag-stan-bowman","20":"tag-training-camp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115222869708715575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}