Top NHL Insider Believes Connor McDavid's Time in Edmonton May Be Coming to an End
Greg Wyshynski has gone on the record stating that he thinks Connor McDavid may leave the Oilers when his contract expires.
Connor McDavid remains under contract with the Oilers for the remainder of this season as well as all of the 2025-26 season.
As things stand now, he is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, 2026.
That gives the Oilers two more chances to win a Stanley Cup before they have to worry about losing the best player in the league.
The team already secured Leon Draisaitl, as they signed him to a record-setting contract last September making him the highest paid player in the league.
That deal seemed to calm the nerves of Oilers fans as many cannot imagine a world where Draisaitl stays with the team and McDavid doesn't.
To be fair, that is a good point. It remains quite likely that McDavid will re-sign with the team once his deal expires, but one NHL insider seems to think it may not be as set in stone as we are expecting.
That insider would be Greg Wyshynski, who seems to believe that the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins could make a run at McDavid after his contract expires.
The Bruins have just over 60 million dollars in cap already locked up for the 2026-27 season with four defensemen, four forwards, and two goalies signed.
It is hard to say how much the salary cap will go up in two years, but if we just assume it will be around 100 million, that would give the team 40 million dollars to sign eight forwards and 2 defensemen.
McDavid alone will likely eat up nearly half that money, but that doesn't make it impossible.
The Rangers on the other hand only have about 50 million committed to the 2026-27 season, but they only have one defenseman, one goalie, and six forwards on the roster for that year.
Still, that gives New York a ton of flexibility were they to make a run at McDavid.
Furthermore, both teams effectively have two years to start shaping their rosters now if they want to maximize their chance of landing McDavid in free agency.
Still, the most likely outcome is that McDavid re-signs with the Oilers.
He will be first eligible to do so on July 1st this summer, so be sure to keep an eye on the team at that point.
Will they take the same approach with McDavid as they did with Draisaitl, or could the league's best player actually go to market? There's only one way to find out.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Ryan McLeod | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Connor McDavid | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Matthew Boldy | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Brent Burns | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Dylan Cozens | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zach Hyman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Martin Necas | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vasily Podkolzin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marco Rossi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Viktor Arvidsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evan Bouchard | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Brown | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Connor Clifton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ty Emberson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Joel Eriksson Ek | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Capitals | 44 | 29 | 10 | 5 | 63 | |
Jets | 45 | 30 | 12 | 3 | 63 | |
Golden Knights | 44 | 29 | 12 | 3 | 61 | |
Wild | 44 | 27 | 13 | 4 | 58 | |
Oilers | 43 | 27 | 13 | 3 | 57 | |
Stars | 43 | 28 | 14 | 1 | 57 | |
Devils | 46 | 26 | 15 | 5 | 57 | |
Maple Leafs | 45 | 27 | 16 | 2 | 56 | |
Hurricanes | 44 | 26 | 15 | 3 | 55 | |
Avalanche | 45 | 27 | 17 | 1 | 55 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||