Connor McDavid may still be the NHL’s gold standard, but the money landscape around him has changed fast.
After an offseason packed with eye-popping extensions, the Edmonton Oilers captain is no longer sitting atop the league’s salary mountain. Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar reset the market with an eight-year deal carrying a $20.4-million average annual value, while San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini briefly held the NHL’s highest cap hit at $18.8 million and Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson followed at $18 million. All three will make far more than McDavid’s $12.5-million AAV.
McDavid said that surge in salaries is good news for the league from a player’s point of view.
"I was thinking: That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money that they all signed for, and deservedly so," McDavid said when asked how he'd reacted to the flurry of lucrative contracts, per Sportsnet's Luke Fox.
"You know, it's been a long time coming for our league, to see some of those numbers. Good on those guys for pushing for that. You're slowly starting to see some player ownership in terms of things."
McDavid has already shown he’s willing to take less than his full market value to help Edmonton build around him. He signed a two-year extension with the Oilers last year without a pay raise, and he’s currently set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2028.
The Oilers, meanwhile, are coming off a step back. After reaching the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous two seasons, they failed to win a playoff series last year. Edmonton also made a notable offseason move by trading veteran Darnell Nurse and hiring Mike Babcock to replace Kris Knoblauch as head coach.
Even with all of that swirling around him, McDavid’s production stayed at an elite level. He piled up 138 points in 2025-26 to win his sixth scoring title in 11 NHL seasons. He finished as the Hart Trophy runner-up and captured the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the league’s most outstanding player as voted by the players.
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