Connor McDavid, Oilers Agree to 2-Year, $25M Contract Ahead of 2025-26 NHL Season

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers agreed to a two-year contract extension with an average annual value of $12.5 million on Monday.

The news was first reported by NHL insider Frank Seravalli. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman had previously reported that a deal was "trending" toward getting done on Monday.

McDavid, who was set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026, is coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances with the Oilers.

The average annual value of McDavid's previous extension, an eight-year, $100 million deal signed in 2017, set an NHL record. It remains to be seen what the terms of a new deal will be.

The Oilers captain is set to remain in Edmonton alongside fellow star center Leon Draisaitl, who signed his own eight-year, $112 million extension ahead of the 2024-25 season.

This news comes after McDavid recorded his fifth straight 100-point regular season in 2024-25.

The Oilers captain then led all players in postseason assists for a second straight campaign as he led his team to another Final appearance.

For a second consecutive season, however, McDavid and the Oilers fell just short of a championship as the Florida Panthers claimed victory in 2025.

This latest playoff run followed a historic 2023-24 regular season and record-breaking 2024 postseason that cemented McDavid's place as one of the best playmakers in NHL history.

Despite missing six games during the 2023-24 campaign, the Oilers captain joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the fourth NHL player to record 100 assists in a single season.

McDavid added 34 assists during the 2024 playoffs to break the single-postseason helpers record Gretzky set with the Oilers in 1988.

Through 10 regular seasons in Edmonton, McDavid ranks second to Gretzky for the franchise lead with 721 career assists.

McDavid has now lived up to almost every expectation laid on him when he was billed as a generational talent as the top pick of the 2015 draft. All that is left is to win a Stanley Cup.

Keeping both McDavid and Draisaitl means the Oilers will expect elite playmaking from both their first and second lines as well as dynamic offense on the power play.

Now that the team has extended both centers, Edmonton can continue building title contenders for seasons to come.