Friedman: Oilers, McDavid set to work on extension after Team Canada Olympic camp

Mum’s been the word about Connor McDavid’s impending extension with the Edmonton Oilers over the summer, with only nibbles of information coming out.

And more breadcrumbs were released this weekend by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast, where he said the Oilers and McDavid will hammer out the captains next deal after Team Canada’s Olympic orientation camp.

I would expect after Connor McDavid is done there and he goes back up to Edmonton, they will work on getting this done… I just think everybody wants to get it done, so I would expect between the Olympic camp and training camp, they sit down and say ‘how’s this all going to look?'”

The camp, which will include McDavid and fellow Oilers Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard, is set to take place in Calgary between August 26th and 28th, Tuesday and Thursday of this week.

That sets the table for a September extension date, following suit with teammate Leon Draisaitl, who signed his eight-year, $14-million cap hit extension on September 3rd, 2024.

McDavid’s extension is expected to make him the highest-paid player in the NHL, though rumours and reports have swirled all summer long about what the deal could look like. There’s talk of the deal being as costly as $16-million to $17.5-million per year, while a recent report suggested it could come in “lower than a lot of people” expect it to.

Nonetheless, there seems to be a consensus among reports that McDavid will sign a shorter-term deal in the three-to-four year range.

The Oilers brass met with McDavid’s camp in Ontario shortly after the playoffs ended to begin in-person meetings, while general manager Stan Bowman said in late July he was “very encouraged” by early extension talks.

McDavid is entering the final year of an eight-year deal paying him $12.5-million annually.