Frank Seravalli’s latest round of NHL predictions came with a few eyebrow-raisers, but the biggest one for Oilers fans is impossible to miss: he doesn’t think Connor McDavid will sign an extension with Edmonton next summer.
In a Sportsnet piece built around 32 predictions, Seravalli said McDavid will let his current deal run all the way through instead of putting pen to paper when he first becomes eligible for an extension. That would mean playing out the final season of his two-year, $12.5 million AAV contract.
Seravalli also added another twist: if McDavid does move on, he doesn’t believe it will happen through a trade.
“My belief: Though undecided, if McDavid is ultimately changing teams, it won’t be via trade, as he won’t want to weaken the next team before his arrival. Think small sign-and-trade with a piece for his rights, similar to Mitch Marner.”
That’s a bold call on a player whose next contract will shape the Oilers’ future, especially after McDavid already took a shorter deal and left Edmonton room to build around him. His third contract with the club begins this season, but it’s only a brief one, and the organization has been counting on the idea that the roster around him will keep getting stronger.
There’s also the reality of how involved McDavid has been in the team’s direction. He was among the leaders who met and supported the hiring of Mike Babcock, which makes the optics of an early exit even more complicated while that coach’s three-year contract is still on the books.
Still, Seravalli left room for the possibility that things could go sideways. If the Babcock situation turns into the kind of nightmare people have worried about, then a departure from McDavid starts to look more plausible.
Seravalli didn’t stop there with Edmonton. He also made a prediction about the playoffs that would catch plenty of attention: Devon Levi leading the Oilers onto the ice as the starter for opening night of the playoffs.
That would be a major turn, even if it comes off as less shocking than the McDavid take. Edmonton is banking on Tristan Jarry to bounce back and hoping a healthy Frederik Andersen can take some pressure off, but Levi is the wild card in the mix.
Rookie goalies have pulled this off before. Seravalli pointed to five who helped their teams win a Stanley Cup in their first season while appearing in more than 11 playoff games: Ken Dryden with the 1970-71 Montreal Canadiens, Patrick Roy with the 1985-86 Montreal Canadiens, Cam Ward with the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes, Matt Murray with the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins, and Jordan Binnington with the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues.
Seravalli wrote: “After wandering from Mikko Koskinen to Jack Campbell, Stuart Skinner, Tristan Jarry and Cal Pickard, the Oilers finally have something in the 24-year-old who just needed a change of scenery. Levi has earned rave reviews for his work ethic, which counts with team leadership.”
He also pegged Edmonton as the Pacific Division winner. In his list of division champions, he had Montreal taking the Atlantic, Carolina winning the Metro, Dallas finishing first in the Central, and the Oilers on top of the Pacific.
If that happens, it would be Edmonton’s first division title since 1987.
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