It was a bit of a surprise when Connor McDavid put pen to paper on a new two-year contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers. While the $12.5 million average annual value matched his previous eight-year deal, he could have commanded any dollar he wanted —as seen by Kirill Kaprizov’s eight-year, $17 million contract. It’s clear McDavid wants to win, and this short-term deal allows the Oilers to continue building a Stanley Cup contender.
This leads us to Auston Matthews. Both players are repped by agent Judd Moldaver and have established mutual respect and admiration for one another. This relationship has developed through best-on-best tournaments like the 4 Nations and McDonald's ads in which they were featured together, underscoring that both are at the elite level of their game.
Both are now free agents in 2028. Matthews is currently in year two of his four-year, $53 million deal.
Is there a possibility that the two could become teammates someday? Maybe both call their own shot and find a destination that is going to make them a winner, becoming the hockey version of the superteam that was established with LeBron James, Dwane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the NBA.
There are also rumblings that the upward projection of a $104 million salary cap in 2026-27 and a $113 million salary cap in 2027-28 could be much higher than that. Especially if the salary cap is $125 million by then.
Both Matthews and McDavid will be 31 when their contracts expire , and the landscape of the "haves and the have nots" in the NHL could completely change. It's clear McDavid just wants to win, and Matthews is certainly driven by the same ambition.
Matthews was pragmatic in his last contract negotiation with the Maple Leafs. He could have commanded a higher cap hit on the open market. He got a shorter term while still getting the highest cap hit per year at the time at $13.25 million. Will Matthews want the same or could he take a page from McDavid's book?
Both players are locked in for the short term, but as teams continue to build from the bottom, there could be several compelling new contending destinations in 2028. It will be fascinating to watch.
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