McDavid seeing Edmonton evolve into destination for world-class players

EDMONTON, AB – Connor McDavid felt his phone vibrate last week with a message from Leon Draisaitl, who delivered the good news to him before all of Oil Country and the entire hockey world found out that he’d be signing his long-term extension in Edmonton.

“He just sent me a text and let me know ahead of time,” McDavid said, speaking with the media in Edmonton for the first time this season after Tuesday’s skate at the Downtown Community Arena.

“Obviously it’s great. I’m really happy for him and his family. Well-deserved. He deserves every penny and I’m happy he’ll be here for really a long time.

“It’s exciting for the organization, the fans and everybody. It’s something that he doesn’t have to worry about. Now he doesn’t have to answer that question or anything like that anymore and that’s good for him.”

With his own eight-year contract nearing its completion at the end of the 2025-26 NHL season, McDavid was more

than happy to answer questions about his close teammate’s new deal, but last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy-winner as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs didn’t want to pay too much attention to matters outside of the Blue & Orange’s collective preparations to get back to the Final this coming campaign and finish the job.

“It’s something that I’m not going to worry about or really deal with,” he added. “It’s a question that I’ll answer once. I’m worried about this year. I’m worried about being ready for the season, both myself and the group, and that’s where my focus is. It’s not on anything else.

“That stuff takes care of itself. It’s not something I’m worried about.”

Over their tenures in Blue & Orange, McDavid and Draisaitl have bared witness to the transformation of the Edmonton Oilers into an organization that can lock down talents like Leon to long-term extensions and bring world-class talent to Oil Country to fill out the roster around the No. 1 and No. 2 centres in hockey.

The club now resides in Rogers Place, the state-of-the-art arena in the heart of ICE District that houses the finest facilities available to those who hope to hoist the Stanley Cup, along with the best fans in the world that help make the environment one of the most attractive to play in for the world’s best players.

“It’s definitely changed and changed for the better,” McDavid said. “That’s a credit to a lot of people, starting with the Katz family first and foremost. The investments they’ve put in – not only to the downtown area the rink and the building – but how they treat the players. Everything is first class. We’re treated really well, we’re taken care of and I think guys obviously appreciate that. It translates to success on the ice. If the players are well taken care of, they’ve got nothing else to do other than worry about playing hockey.”

“I think for people that haven’t experienced Edmonton, it’s really easy living. There’s no hour’s drive, there’s no traffic – although the construction could be better (laughs) – but it’s really convenient living. It’s easy living; stress-free living. It checks a lot of boxes for a lot of guys.

“It’s not the beach and it’s not beautiful weather all the time, but we’re here to play hockey and we’re here to be a part of something and I think guys want to do that.”

Swedish winger Viktor Arvidsson, who was attracted to Edmonton this offseason by the team culture and the chance to win a Stanley Cup alongside one of his long-time friends Mattias Ekholm, said that when you’re able to look beyond some of the cold months in December, January and February, there aren’t many better landing spots than Oil Country.

“I think the hockey and people want to get better; people want to win,” Arvidsson said on Tuesday. “I’m from up north in Sweden too, so I’m kind of used to the conditions. I think weather is a big part of it for some players, but I’m excited.”

McDavid added: “He’s somebody that you’d rather have on your team and he’s one of the guys that I’m really excited about. I think he’s going to fit in great here.”

Despite some notable departures from the Oilers this offseason – headlined by the offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues for Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg – all those factors working in the club’s favour to attract talent resulted in the additions of veterans Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner, along with the re-signing of names like Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry.

Having players leave is just part of the business when you’re a Stanley Cup contender, McDavid added, after he returned to the ice on Monday morning for his first captain’s skate of the 2024-25 season and observed the talent that his team boasts for this upcoming season.

“We’ve got better in a lot of areas and a lot of areas have changed,” he acknowledged. “I love the additions that we’ve made. I think we’ll miss some of the guys that we’ve lost. But with that being said, that’s the NHL. That’s the salary cap era. That’s part of being a good team that’s right up against the cap. Things happen and it’s the unfortunate part of the game, but there are lots of good players in this organization and it’s a chance for guys to show what they have.”

For McDavid, it’s all about keeping the focus on Training Camp instead of thinking too far down the road, which was a contributing factor to the Blue & Orange’s slow 3-9-1 start last year despite the whole team’s early arrival in Edmonton after Labour Day for captain’s skates.

After the longest campaign of their careers to date that was followed by the shortest summer they’ve experienced as NHL players, the Oilers are eager to immediately begin applying those learning moments from last season – beginning with a more tempered approach to captain’s skates and Training Camp that can put the club on a better course to come out of the gates strongly on October 9 at Rogers Place against the Winnipeg Jets.

“The goal is to peak in early October, not necessarily early September,” McDavid stated.

You can’t get ahead of yourself. We talk about lessons and implementing them as you go, and last year, a big lesson would have been not getting ahead of ourselves and taking care of what’s in front of us. I think our group had good intentions. I think we got a little bit ahead of ourselves coming out of the gates, and obviously, it showed. So you can just take care of what’s in front of you, and for us, that’s getting ready to go for a big camp and going from there.