Is Connor McDavid leaving the Edmonton Oilers? If you are an Oilers fan, you probably think he won’t. If you are Leon Draisaitl, you believe he’ll stay. If you are a Toronto Maple Leafs fan (or a fan of any of the other NHL teams), you are itching for your favorite team to make a run at him in free agency, should he arrive there.
Maple Leafs analyst, podcaster, and former player Jay Rosehill shared his thoughts about the McDavid saga on X.
It was a turbulent day for Oilers fans on September 17. On the first day of training camp, Stan Bowman, Kris Knoblauch, and several players spoke to the media about the offseason and training camp expectations.
Earlier in the morning, the latest episode of 32 Thoughts hit the airwaves. This episode featured exclusive interviews with McDavid and Draisaitl. While Draisaitl’s comments made Oilers fans feel better about the situation, McDavid’s words didn’t.
Rosehill was one of many people on X to post their thoughts about the McDavid situation.
“If Connor McDavid didn’t intend on resigning with the Oilers, what would that would look like?” Rosehill wrote. “I think it would look exactly like it does right now.”
The fact that McDavid remains unsigned has certainly drawn concern from Oilers fans. However, the reaction from Maple Leafs fans has been different.
“It’s hard to imagine a scenario where McDavids intention is to sign in Edmonton and it looks anything like what we’re seeing?” wrote one user on X.
Another user wrote, “You mean future Toronto Maple Leaf, Connor McDavid.”
Someone else is convinced McDavid will join the Maple Leafs. They wrote, “McDavid along side Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly will be the most beautiful thing ever in hockey.”
In a separate post on X, another user described McDavid’s comments as being similar to those of (now) former Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner.
“McDavid is saying a lot of the same things Mitch Marner was saying a year ago. It is what it is, Oilers fans.”
At the beginning of the 2024-25 season, Marner spoke to the media about his contract situation on a few different occasions.
“It’s another year of wanting to be the best you can be and help this team win hockey games,” Marner said on September 18, 2024. “That’s where my mind is, it’s not thinking of a contract year and you have to be doing this and that. It’s just another hockey year where you want to be the best you can be to help this team win hockey games and get to the ultimate goal.”
“Obviously, I want to be here. I want to be here long term and hopefully that happens.”
Some of the things McDavid has said sound similar to these comments.
“I’ll take my time and go through everything. I have every intention to win in Edmonton. It’s my only focus,” McDavid told Sportsnet earlier in September. “I want to the group to be as focused and dialed in and ready to roll from Day 1 as much as possible and we don’t need any distractions.”
Like it or not, McDavid, your contract status has created quite the distraction already.
