The speculation feels never ending for fans of the Edmonton Oilers as it feels like every day National Hockey League (NHL) fans, pundits, and insiders are giving their own takes and opinions on the Connor McDavid contract situation.
Unfortunately, this has caused claims from people for the past month or so that the McDavid contract is going to be signed on day x,y,z but there has been no ink as of yet. So, when it was posted on X that the Hall of Fame room had been previously booked for Monday October 6th but was pushed to Tuesday by Oilers Entertainment Group, plenty of people speculated -- us included -- that the McDavid deal was surely coming that day.
However, now Bob Stauffer on Friday night's broadcast seemed to pour cold water on these rumours (according to Kevin McCurdy on X).
So I was listening to the broadcast on AM radio when I had to relocate earlier and Bob Stauffer said this (this is a paraphrase, but I promise it's very close):
— Kevin McCurdy (@KevinMcCurdy) October 4, 2025
The CFR cleanup is occuring saturday and sunday with the crews going through the building multiple times, as a result…
What is the latest on the Connor McDavid contract extension rumours?
As of right now, the Oilers pushing this room booking is the closest thing to an inside scoop that has been released. There is also the fact that October 6th is the deadline for deferred contracts to be submitted and Frank Seravalli speculates that it could be a date of interest for the Oilers and McDavid.
If we look at another NHL insider, Elliotte Friedman on a recent episode of 32 Thoughts the Podcast he said "I still think there is some hope out there it'll happen before the season" also saying "In the summer I think people were saying it was gonna be $16 million, it's gonna be lower than we thought" (according to NHLRumourReport on X).
All of the speculation has come from outside of the organization as the Oilers brass, McDavid and his camp have been tight lipped about the possibiltiy of an extension. General manager Stan Bowman recently said “I think we’re continuing to talk to [McDavid’s agent Judd Moldaver] regularly, I talk to him almost every day and had good chats with Connor all along the way too. I don’t like to make predictions, we’ll see where it goes.”
This noncommittal stance by Bowman has raised some concern amongst fans of the team but it is not out of the ordinary. You do not want to show your hand and negotiate through the media, especially concerning your star player.
McDavid likely to sign for short term
At this stage that seems to be the biggest takeaway, assuming McDavid signs it is likely to be short term . That has been the speculation for a long time and it makes sense, if he truly does have questions surrounding the long term viability of the team and it's core. He even said he believes he has "one chance" to get things right, showing the importance he holds on this decision.
The dollar figure has went up and down but the recent suggestions are that he will sign for around $16 million per year, possibly less. However, the recent signing of Kirill Kaprizov may complicate things for people who expect he will take a big hometown discount.
There is a lot of noise surrounding this topic at the moment and there will continue to be plenty of speculation until McDavid signs on the dotted line. Until then, it is important to try to keep a level head and parse through the toxic noise.