Cue the Connor McDavid free agency rumors.

The Edmonton Oilers captain still has another year remaining on his current contract before he becomes a UFA. But after losing to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final for the second straight year, Matthew Tkachuk sympathized with McDavid for coming up short again, telling reporters that 28-year-old's going to win a Cup one of these days, whether it's in Edmonton or somewhere else.

" I do think that he is going to win one day," said Tkachuk. "He’s just that talented."

For the second straight year, McDavid led the playoffs in scoring. But for the second straight year, the individual offensive numbers did not translate to team success.

It's not exactly fair to blame McDavid for failing to get Edmonton' over the hump. And yet, the outcome was also not surprising.

A year ago, McDavid was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as post-season MVP. While McDavid and Leon Draisaitl led all scorers with 33 points each, the next-highest Edmonton player finished with 23 points. In other words, if McDavid or Draisaitl weren’t producing — neither had a point in a 5-1 loss in Game 6 on Tuesday — few others were.

"Two of the best players in the world, that's not an easy job by any means," said Florida's Sam Bennett. "It really took everyone and everyone bought in."

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Contrast that with Florida, which had eight players ranked in the top-13 in playoff scoring, with five scoring seven or more goals.

“I just think the difference with our team and their team is from my vantage point — and it might not be true — it just seemed that when things got tough and hard, everyone looked to him to be able to do it all himself,” said Tkachuk. “It’s just so hard to do that. And you can’t do that.

“Whereas our team, it’s that depth and that team — that team, team, team. That’s the word we use. That’s what we’re all about. We get great efforts from everybody. We’re very lucky."

It’s hard to have depth when your top-two players are earning a combined $26.5 million. Florida, meanwhile, has no one earning more than $10 million in salary.

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With the salary cap expected to increase by $4 million next season, the Oilers should have extra money to round out their roster. Then again, they will have to leave some money around for McDavid, who is set to become a UFA on July 1, 2026.

That is, if he's still interested in remaining in Edmonton.

“Everything he’s done for the game, it would be nice for him to win one day — and he will,” said Tkachuk. “When you have a player that good and that talented, he's going to win (the Stanley Cup) one day — wherever it is."

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