{"id":675779,"date":"2026-10-01T07:03:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/675779\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T07:03:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:03:23","slug":"hes-a-mainstay-in-edmonton-gretzky-doesnt-see-mcdavid-leaving-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/675779\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s a mainstay in Edmonton\u2019: Gretzky doesn\u2019t see McDavid leaving Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018He\u2019s a mainstay in Edmonton\u2019: Gretzky doesn\u2019t see McDavid leaving Oilers<\/p>\n

The greatest player to ever lace up his skates believes the game\u2019s current No. 1 star won\u2019t be leaving his current team.<\/p>\n

No. 99 noted that he thinks fans in Edmonton will see No. 97 in the blue and orange indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a mainstay in Edmonton,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cHe likes it there. The organization is a good organization. They\u2019ve got a chance every year to win. That\u2019s all he wants. I don\u2019t see Connor leaving Edmonton.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot has been made about the outlook on McDavid\u2019s career. Before the 2025-26 season began, McDavid didn\u2019t have a contract extension in place, leaving many fans worried they were going to lose unquestionably the best player in the world today. Yet, general manager Stan Bowman and company were able to get the former first-overall pick to sign a two-year extension<\/a>, carrying an AAV of $12.5 million.Yet, the simple thought of someone like McDavid potentially leaving two years from now<\/a> sends a shiver up the spine of many people around Edmonton. Some, including insider Frank Seravalli,<\/a> don\u2019t think McDavid will sign an extension right away, as the Richmond Hill, Ont., native could sign a new deal as early as July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

The biggest concern regarding the 29-year-old is the direction the team might be heading when his current deal comes to an end. If the Oilers aren\u2019t a championship contender by then, many fear that he\u2019ll jet to a better team in search of a Stanley Cup, the only thing missing from his growing trophy case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a stigma about winning a Stanley Cup,\u201d Gretzky said. \u201cI know him really well. Nobody wants to win a championship worse than he does. Hopefully his time will come. I know it\u2019s not from a lack of effort or dedication or love of the sport. And I hope one day he gets that opportunity to lift the Stanley Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even without a Cup, McDavid has already had a Hall of Fame-worthy career. He\u2019s won six Art Ross Trophies, second only to Gretzky. McDavid ranks second in franchise history in assists (813) and points (1,222), while sitting fifth in goals (417) and tied for ninth in games played (795). His 1.54 points per game has him third in NHL history behind only Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.<\/p>\n

The Future is Daily Faceoff Edmonton\"\"<\/p>\n

The future of hockey coverage is bigger than one team, one market, or one platform. By bringing our local hockey brands together under Daily Faceoff, we\u2019re creating a more complete hockey experience \u2014 one that gives fans the best of local passion and league-wide expertise, all in one place. The community remains at the centre. The experience is simply expanding as part of\u00a0the next evolution of how we cover the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Welcome to Daily Faceoff Edmonton \u2014 Driven by hockey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s a mainstay in Edmonton\u2019: Gretzky doesn\u2019t see McDavid leaving Oilers The greatest player to ever lace up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[198,146,5300,5,4,24],"class_list":["post-675779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-oilers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117364379428470247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675779","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=675779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}