The general consensus is that Connor McDavid will sign another long-term and lucrative extension, to remain with the Edmonton Oilers. No other team can give him an eight-year deal, and there's no doubt that they will also make it the most expensive contract in NHL history.
As the saying goes however, you can never say never, with there being few 100 percent guarantees in life. At this point though, we're sure at least some of you are wondering why the heck we're even mentioning this, when it comes to McDavid specifically?
Well, it's due to comments made on an episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast during last week. In particular, that the New York Rangers could well make a play for McDavid, to persuade him to go to the NHL's biggest market.
Why the New York Rangers?
Before any Oilers fans out there decide to verbally abuse Dangle, we should point out that the comments were not made not by him. Instead, they came from one of his co-hosts Adam Wylde, who said:
"What happens when Connor McDavid becomes a New York Ranger? ... If you don't think that NHL teams in the East and in the West are going to at least watch that play out and maybe make room for him."
Dangle then interjected with a joke about tampering with an amusing play on words, before fellow co-host Jesse Black continued where Wylde left off. He said:
"I think it would be great for the health and growth of this league, if when the salary cap goes up this season and next year to North of $100 million, and we see all of these teams get a whole bunch of cap space, we can see a very similar Kevin Durant to Golden State situation, where somebody is able to steal a giant player like Connor McDavid to one of these markets and build an awesome super team."
We would like to claim we can objectively see where Wylde and Black are coming from, but that still doesn't mean it's going to happen, at least not specifically where McDavid is concerned. For a start, considering the constraints which come with the salary cap -- no matter how much it will go up in the next couple of years -- is he not already playing on a super team of sorts?
McDavid already playing on a super-talented team
Last time we checked, the Oilers are a Stanley Cup Final team, which actually scored more goals than the eventual champions over the course of last season's seven games. Aside from McDavid still being the best player on the planet, they have Leon Draisaitl, who is regularly regarded as a top 5-10 player himself in the NHL.
You've got Zach Hyman, whose 70 goals last season tied with Auston Matthews for the most, when combining the regular season and playoffs. The Oilers also have the combination of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard on the blue line, who are regarded as one of the very best pairings in the NHL.
Going back to Draisaitl, there was similar talk that he could look to sign somewhere such as Boston, in order to maximise his earnings and be the number one centre on a contending team. In the end however, he decided to stick around in Edmonton and re-sign for eight years and $112 million, a full 12 months before he was set to become an unrestricted free agent.
Ultimately, the Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, or whichever other team and fan base thinks they have a divine right to sign the league's best players, can forget about it when it comes to McDavid. He's a loyal person, is best friends with Draisaitl, has built a life in Edmonton, and knows he's already playing on a consistent contender.
Of course, we appreciate that none of this is going to stop media folks around Canada and the United States discussing the possibility of McDavid signing his next deal with another team for a while yet. However, we feel confident in saying he's going nowhere and will agree his extension with the Oilers sometime during the coming summer, as opposed to testing the free agent market a year later.