With Connor McDavid's willingness to take a 2 year short term $12.5 million hometown discount in Edmonton, the question is what brought the organization's franchise superstar to arrive at the conclusion this deal was a necessary one to make.
These contract talks had already stretched as long as they could have with a deal finally having been reached just prior to the start of this 25-26 season. What drove McDavid to make this decision now, rather than simply let the season play out first?
After all the speculation and rumors over what the contract amount would look like, McDavid settled for the exact same average annual value of his current deal. Why?
The deciding factor with the McDavid contract
Apparently via insider Frank Seravalli, this unprecedented team friendly deal was all the doing of Connor McDavid himself. It was Connor's decision to take millions less than he could have on this contract. And this was a breakthrough that arrived fast and furious, with the entire work of finding the number and term having been done yesterday.
After all this negotiating time, one would have expected there to be a flurry of discussions between McDavid's agent and the Oilers regarding the makeup of this new contract. But, after all this time the ball was entirely in the court of Connor McDavid.
The Edmonton Oilers brass has put their trust and faith in Connor McDavid through the way they handled this difficult process. And McDavid has kept the faith by sticking around, for now. What happens at the conclusion of his next deal in 2028 is a future topic for another time. The pressure remains on in Edmonton to bring the McDavid-era Oilers a long awaited Stanley Cup.