B/R NHL Writers' Roundtable: Best Team for Connor McDavid in 2026?

Tired of the Connor McDavid contract discussion yet?

Too bad. Our writers want to talk about it.

The biggest story for the 2025-26 season will be the best player in the world's future with the Oilers captain's contract set to expire on June 30, 2026.

Thirty-one teams around the league would do anything to land him, and the bidding would be outrageous if he reaches the open market.

But which team is best for No. 97 in 2026?

The B/R NHL staff got together for another roundtable to discuss the possibilities.

Disagree with any takes from the team? Sound off now in the comments section of the B/R app.

McDavid Should Stay in Edmonton

Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images

Why It Makes Sense: Though it's fun (for some) to suggest reasons why he ought to leave and places he could go if he does, let's drop a bit of reality here, too.

He's been an MVP three times. He's been a scoring champ five times. More than anything else in his competitive world, McDavid wants to win the Stanley Cup. And no team outside of south Florida is any closer to doing that than the one he's on.

Leon Draisaitl is on a short list of players who could be considered the second-best in the league. Evan Bouchard has emerged as a prolific offensive defenseman. And having an extended supporting cast that includes a former 50-goal scorer in Zach Hyman and a former 100-point man in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins isn't too shabby either.

Lest anyone forget, the Oilers blew through the West with a 12-4 mark in last spring's playoffs and were 2-2 through four games against the Panthers, carrying home-ice advantage into Game 5 without an injured Hyman up front and with a compromised Mattias Ekholm on the blue line before imploding down the stretch.

And that was just 12 months after they'd lost by a goal in Game 7, indicating that the gap between the teams—while vast in terms of parades—is razor-thin on the ice. Regardless of how the season begins, Edmonton will have some cash on hand at the deadline to bolster the roster for another prolonged postseason stay.

Biggest Obstacles: The window won't stay open forever. Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins aren't getting any younger, the goaltending remains a question mark and the pipeline isn't exactly bursting with blue-chip prospects. If they don't win soon, they might not win at all.

Percentage of Joining: 97 percent. It's not a question of whether he'll sign an extension, it's a question of term. The guess here is a two-year deal that makes him the league's richest player for the moment and allows for a couple more runs with the current core, then gives him a chance to reassess the franchise's future after 12 other current contracts have expired. If he goes at all, it won't be until then.

-Lyle Fitzsimmons

Montreal Can Start New Dynasty With McDavid

Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images

Why It Makes Sense: If McDavid wants to play for a team that gives him a serious chance at beating the Florida Panthers, he should join the Montréal Canadiens.

After all, they were the only team to sweep their regular-season series with the Panthers last season.

OK, it was the regular season, not the playoffs. The Panthers may have been guilty of taking the rebuilding Habs lightly.

However, the Canadiens are considered a team on the rise after exceeding expectations to reach the playoffs last season.

They possess young stars like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský, and 2025 Calder Memorial Trophy winner Lane Hutson. They also have promising youngsters like winger Ivan Demidov on the roster and goalie Jacob Fowler in their system.

Factor in a player's coach such as Martin St. Louis and a passionate hockey market, and the Canadiens could be the right market for McDavid to play for a Stanley Cup contender in the near future.

Biggest Obstacles: The Canadiens aren't a Cup contender yet, and McDavid is in "win-now" mode. They have over $37 million in projected cap space for 2026-27, but his monster contract could hamper efforts to re-sign Hutson and Demidov within the next two years.

Percentage of Joining: 15 percent. McDavid could prefer joining a ready-made contender. He could return to his hometown and help the Toronto Maple Leafs end their long Cup drought. Still, you have to admit, if he signed with the Leafs' longtime rival, the meltdown in Toronto would be epic.

-Lyle Richardson

Bright Lights on Broadway Are Perfect

Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images

Why It Makes Sense: If you think about what McDavid might view as Edmonton's most significant shortcomings, the Rangers conveniently match those as strengths.

Goaltending alone has spoiled 97's career more often than not. It doesn't get any better, both in terms of reliability and peak performance, than Igor Shesterkin.

Depth has also crushed Edmonton; when McDavid is on the bench, they get tormented. To Rangers GM Chris Drury's credit, he has done a phenomenal job building a prospect pool that sets the team up for years of roster depth, which is not only effective but also cost-effective. 

What this team lacks, more than anything, is a true first-line center. And if McDavid's presence can recruit supporting top-six players to Edmonton, then that trickle-down effect will carry over to a city like New York.

It would be a different type of team in New York than in Edmonton and he wouldn't have the elite supporting cast provided by Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, etc. But McDavid is the best player in the world and can make magic happen with anyone.

The big question in his career is how the team holds up when he's off the ice. At least in New York, the Rangers are strong in the areas where McDavid has to leave his fate in the hands of others.

Biggest Obstacles: No doubt, the Rangers have numerous problems. Despite a major organizational overhaul of both players and coaches, this team, as constructed, does not look poised to do much in 2025-26. And what from there? Most of the team's top forwards are on the wrong side of 30. This is not a team that is on the up and up.

Percentage of Joining: 12.5 percent.

-Adam Herman

Time for a 1-2 Punch With Bedard in Chicago

Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Why It Makes Sense: Look away, haters of the Blackhawks.

Before anyone has rebuttals, let's concede that the Windy City isn't the most attractive option on the surface. After all, Chicago hasn't been a playoff team since 2020 and has been among the bottom-feeders of the NHL for some time now.

But think big picture.

Chicago has plenty of cap room, a highly rated prospect pool and a second superstar to go along with McDavid should he decide to leave Edmonton. It's an Original Six franchise with a tradition of winning.

Leon Draisaitl is one of the best forwards in the game, but having Connor Bedard as a running mate might be attractive for McDavid. And who better to guide the next generational talent in the NHL than the one before him?

Biggest Obstacles: Well, the Blackhawks themselves for starters. Would McDavid want to go to a team currently worse than the Oilers? General manager Kyle Davidson has built a strong prospect pool, but Chicago seems no closer to success than the day it drafted McDavid.

Percentage of Joining: 10 percent, if we're being generous. It's hard to see McDavid waiting out years of rebuilding before contending for a Cup. Nevertheless, a long-term view of what Chicago has to offer may put it in a different light after this season.

- Lucky Ngamwajasat

McDavid Was Meant to be a Sabre

B Wippert/Getty Images

Connor McDavid playing for the Erie Otters in Buffalo in 2014.

Why it makes sense: Call them Buffalo.

Some years ago, having plenty of money in their purse and nothing in particular to interest them in free agency, the Sabres thought they would sail about the sea of lottery ping-pong balls.

It was a way they had to drive off the threat of making the playoffs and picking well within the midrange of the NHL draft.

Buffalo has endured a long stretch of rebuilding, always hoping for a franchise-changing player like McDavid. Their pursuit has spanned countless disappointing lotteries and seasons, ever since the missed chance to snag him in 2015.

For Sabres fans, bringing McDavid to Buffalo would finally fulfill years of anticipation and hope.

Biggest obstacle: Cash. It'll cost more money than the Sabres have ever spent on any single player to bring McDavid home to the place he's never resided. Rasmus Dahlin's eight-year, $88 million deal is $8 million more than they paid 2015 No. 2 pick Jack Eichel.

Paying Dahlin $11 million a year is the artificial bar set for everyone, salary-wise. Safe to say, if they were going to make a genuine attempt to land McDavid, it would take an NHL-record contract to do it.

Percentage of joining: 9.97 percent. Nine was Jack Eichel's number and 97 is McDavid's; we're amateur numerologists. The Sabres haven't signed a free agent to a massive contract since Kyle Okposo in 2016 and that was a seven-year, $42 million deal ($6 million AAV).

Any other massive deal they'd signed was an extension worth big money (Eichel, Dahlin, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, etc.). Getting McDavid would require owner Terry Pegula to do something he's never done before as a Sabres owner and essentially write a blank check. If there's any player in the NHL he'd do that for, it would be McDavid given everything they did in 2014-2015 to get the best odds in the lottery for him.

-Joe Yerdon