Connor McDavid has done everything he can.
And yet, the Edmonton Oilers lost each of the last two Stanley Cup Finals to the Florida Panthers.
For the best player on the planet, it's just an awful feeling.
“When someone asks me what this is all about, it’s two losses in a row in the Finals, and he can’t freaking stand it. It makes him crazy," said NHL insider Elliotte Friedman on his latest podcast.
In 2024, it was a seven-game series. This time around, it was six games.
McDavid has put up a lot of playoff points, but he can't do it alone, and the Panthers have been the better team each time around.
Now, McDavid enters the final season of his contract. He's set up to be the most high-profile free agent the NHL has seen in a long time, if the Oilers can't reach an agreement with him.
Recently, NHL insider Frank Seravelli shared his own thoughts on the negotiations in Edmonton.
"I think the Edmonton Oilers are a little bit flummoxed as to why this has taken so long," Seravelli said. "There hasn't been too much engagement. They haven't talked numbers or anything like that in terms of trying to advance that conversation forward. The harder part for me is trying to wrap my head around what might change in order to make that happen."
McDavid is part of a loaded free agent class that also includes Jack Eichel and Kirill Kaprizov.
The Canadian superstar will turn 29 years old in January, and he's coming off an 100-point season in which he had 26 goals and 74 assists in just 67 games. In his career, he has played 712 games and put up 1,082 points, broken down between 36 goals and 721 assists.
McDavid has led the NHL in points in five separate seasons and in assists in four separate campaigns.
But he wants the Cup, because getting so close and failing is incredibly painful.
MORE: The latest on Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights