OverDrive - Johnston on McDavid's future in Edmonton, his undetermined path and the impact on the team

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines at the Hockey Canada orientation camp, Connor McDavid's comments on his future with the Oilers and the next steps in Edmonton, the impact to the roster, MItch Marner's departure from the Maple Leafs and more.

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Mitch Marner's there talking about Easton Cowan for some reason. I'm not quite certain where that came from. But to get you an update, we'll go live to the scene. Here's our TSN Hockey Insider, Chris Johnston. C.J., what's going on there with Mitch Marner, pumping the tires of Easton-Cowen for some reason today? What was that all about? I have no idea. I wasn't actually in its scrum because he had to kind of pick and choose.

So I don't know where that came from, but I guess we're still in silly season, right? We're all looking for different content. I guess so, yeah, because with Mitch, I don't know. Like, where do we go with Mitch here? Is it Leaves, Leaves, Leaves for what, two, three, four years until we finally move past that story? Or, like, how do you see the Mitch Marner, we got to talk to him about his exit in Toronto story playing out here? And how many, how, you know, long are the legs that are left in that story? Well, I'd say there at least, you know, six, eight months.

I mean, until he comes back and plays a game in Toronto, I think it will be of interest. And, you know, to be honest, the one thing I've never yet heard, and I admit, Middly might have missed it because over the summer I've been lucky to not been to, you know, as dialed in as usual, but I haven't heard him really explained why he left Toronto. And, you know, I think we can all deduce reasons and, you know, come to our own conclusions about why that might be and even make sense of it. But, you know, I haven't really heard him dig into that. And I suspect he will between, you know, his time here in front of the media.

You've got some, you know, NHL media tours coming up and then just to start of training camps. I mean, someone's going to get in front of him and, you know, ask some of those questions. But, you know, I think that that, I'll be curious to hear what he says there. And then, you know, over time, as lots of players move on from their teams, you know, it does fade a little more into the background. But, you know, certainly for this first season where he's in Vegas, I think it's always going to be, you know, something where people are looking in on how he's doing, you know, wondering how the move's going, wondering how the leaps are faring without him.

And, you know, ultimately they're going to have to paint each other on the ice, too. Do you think, C.J., like, as these questions keep getting asked to Mitch Marner and it's about Toronto, do you think eventually it just kind of fades away and we forget about it? Or does there come this one time or this one story where, you know, someone's going to be a little passive-aggressive or sling a little something at them? And, you know, it's like, oh, those guys were teammates, but that's the actual story and that's how, you know, things kind of left off. Or does it just, you know, does it go away and we never really think about it in that way? Yeah, you know, it probably depends on how much life, you know, the story gets from, you know, as you're sort of saying there, Frankie, like other people, if a player says something, if, you know, the GM, you know, like those sorts of things that can probably extend the story, you know, the other thing that I could see, you know, potentially bringing it back in the spotlight, and this is, admittedly seems like a long shot as we're talking at the end of August, but if you get a Leafs in Vegas top final at some point, and, you know, Mitch Varner is coming back to Toronto in that kind of circumstance, obviously, it would be a huge focal point.

But, you know, for the most part, once they get through the first, you know, milestones of this season, I do think it'll be, you know, in the background and not as top of mind. But, you know, some of this will be dependent on what's that and how the teams do. I mean, if the Leafs, you know, have a monster hole in their lineup and they can't fill it, you know, might lead people to focus on it more. You know, the flip side of that point is if things go well this season and they move on. You know, it might not be as in front and center. So it's hard to say for sure here right now.

But needless to say, this still has some legs on it for the immediate future. And I would suspect even tomorrow, when Mitch is speaking to the media, there's going to be more quotes coming out. So, CJ, what's kind of on the agenda? What is the goal of bringing everyone together in Calgary with no ice times, I should say? You know, it's kind of an interesting camp. I think the fact that three teams are all here, the Paralympic team, the women's team and the men team together.

that's the first time for that and you know it creates sort of a unique atmosphere and you know from the men side of things you know where i think they landed is they're focusing as much on sort of off-ights camaraderie um prioritizing that here at the end of august over anything that might be accomplished on ice and you know i think that makes a whole lot of sense i mean a good chunk of this team that that ultimately becomes the Olympic team that goes to milan obviously played together to four nations i don't think it'll be a surprise to see you know a healthy percentage of that team return, you know, at the Olympic team this year. But, you know, other than Sidney Crosby and perhaps through Dowdy, and it's going to be a first Olympics for every other player on the event team. And the Olympics is a different animal. It's a different beast than even what they faced last year in the four nations. So, you know, I think that they sort of looked at this period in time and I'm sure there's, you know, insurance type of complications and everything, but, you know, decided who cares about a practice? You know, they're out golf and a lot of them today, you know, obviously doing, you know, team building type of events,

you know, in the evenings and dinners and things like that. And for the men's team, this will be the last time. Any group of them will be together in big numbers until they get to Italy and, you know, three days before the games begin in February. So, you know, as much as, you know, it might look, you know, like a little bit, who cares what they're doing. I mean, because I get it. It's just not there's not high drama happening here. We're not seeing, you know, forward lines and defense fairings and able to make sort of determinations on where the roster is going to sit today. You know, I do think that it's an important time for them to get together and, you know, just try to build up some camaraderie because, you know, that Olympic tournament will play

out pretty quickly once they get to come along a few months down the road here. With Chris Johnston. So Connor McDavid says, quote, he has every intention of winning in Edmonton, end quote. How do you process that quote? Well, I take about his word, you know, I think that that's something, obviously, it's been his intention for 10 seasons in the NHL or 11 seasons, whatever it's been. And, you know, he's sort of saying nothing's changed. He's under contract this year with the Oilers, no matter how talks go or what he decides with his extension. But, you know, the other thing he said today that I think was pretty notable is that, you know, it's basically it's not his preference to have a deal done by the start of the season.

It's the first time, you know, publicly and, you know, we're getting a little closer to. to the start of the year, where he said something like that in public. And it's hard not to sort of perk up and take notice of that fact. I don't think anyone should get too carried away and use it as a predictor of how this is going to go on because, you know, obviously there's just a huge amount of time between today and July 1st, 2026, when Connor could potentially become an unrestricted free agent. You know, I've got no reason to believe he's, you know, trying to figure a way out of Edmonton, but he's obviously not in a position where he's comfortable signing an extension with the Oilers.

And this is a massive deal for him at a massive point in his career. I mean, this guy's 28, turning 29 in January, and, you know, he's led the playoffs three of the last four years in playoff scoring. I mean, you know, obviously he's coming into the final series the last two years with the Oilers losing to Florida in the final. He's done almost all you can do without winning a Stanley Cup. And, you know, I think that it's of utmost importance to him that he's got a chance. to not only try to win one cup, but multiple cups here as he enters kind of what I'll look at as the second phase of his career and gets closer to age 30. So, you know, he's got a big decision in front of him.

You know, I do think all things being equally love to remain with the Oilers, but, you know, beyond this season, there's some question marks about what their team's going to look like or, you know, as with a lot of teams, they've just got, you know, USA's and other unknowns. And, you know, he's, at least today, to me, open up the possibility that he's going to take more time before deciding if he signs that extension in Edmonton. It's not necessarily something we should expect to happen here in the next two or three weeks. How big of a distraction could that be for the Edmonton Oilers this year if that's something that goes into the regular season?

Connor McDavid playing without a contract extension, is that become a dark cloud or is that become one of those things where he addresses it once and then everyone just kind of respects that and moves past it? You know, it's a great unknown for me. I mean, we know being on our side of the microphone now that obviously it's something, if he doesn't sign that extension, once camp opens, once regular season opens, and we're going to discuss it. We'll be kicking around on overdrive every second day.

There'll be questions naturally when he does have to do some of those media scrums and things like that. But, you know, I don't know to what degree, if any, it would impact his teammates. I mean, it's a hard one for me to kind of evaluate. I think it's probably on some level difficult for Connor to evaluate. And, you know, it was, you know, something else he mentioned today. So we don't need any more distractions. You know, he wants to make sure the team, as they look to get over the hump and, you know, win one more playoff round than they've been able to the last two years, that he's not doing anything to take away from that with potentially having this as an unknown. So, you know, I would say it would be sort of a brave new world if we got into that.

You know, there's been other great players, including Mitch Varner last season, you know, obviously went all the way to free agency. and you know I ended up in Vegas but you know there's only one Connor McDavid there's only one player of his stature in the league right now and you know I think that that brings with it some you know there's going to be naturally some attention there but I don't know if it's going to you know if it would become something that bothers the oilers day in and day out or not and so I think that's why this will be an incremental day by day kind of story

if we get into September or October and he hasn't actually signed that deal if he truly does still need more time you know know, we won't have any equivalent to this, really. I don't think that we, you haven't had a generational player in any, anywhere in recent memory, potentially even think about free agency. As I mentioned, I don't want to go too far down that road because I think there's a lot still to play out here, but, you know, it becomes more and more possible, I suppose, the longer we go without him signing another contract.

See, Jim, you look back on Mish Martyr's situation, even Stephen Stamco's, even, you know, when John Tavares left the Islanders, were there pressure points that you felt or saw over any of those? Because Stamco's ultimately did sign, I'm talking about the one of his last contract with Tampa. But were there any pressure points in there we look back and thinking, man, this was one where once I got past that, maybe there's

kind of no coming back from it. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. You know, with Martin, he had control, right? He had a no movement clause. We know now and reported on a little bit at the time that the Leafs at a certain point when they felt he wasn't coming back

looked to trade him. You know, that that didn't exist in the other two cases. You know, with the Islanders, Tavares, you know, negotiated with them really right into May and even, perhaps even June. But, you know, they were an option for him. And I think he felt he got so far that he wanted to look at life somewhere else. And it was a unique opportunity for him. You know, Samcoast, I don't think he ever truly wanted to leave.

I'm talking about that first free agency window. You know, that was back in the days when you could go talk to other teams. There was that interview period they called it. and, you know, he sort of peeked behind that curtain, but ultimately, you know, stayed in Tampa. So I think each situation is kind of its own making. You know, we're at kind of a, to me, a really interesting shifting time in the league with a cap starting to really jump now. And I don't mean to suggest this as in any way about money. But, you know, I think we're going to see some shifting dynamics about which teams are kind of the power teams, you know,

what players decide to do with their futures. it's only natural under this new CBA that I think we'll see some shifts there and if you're in Connor McDavid's position I can understand that you would want to at least try to get your mind around all that and try to ensure you're in a spot where you really do have a chance to win the cup

because I think the worst possible outcome for him or any one of his stature is signing an extension in two or three years down the road you're looking at a roster that just doesn't have a chance to win and you're kind of locked in there I mean, in some ways, that's where Sidney Crosby's found himself the last number of years in Pittsburgh, but obviously the consolation, the asterisk there is he's won three cups with the penguins. You know, that's not something Connor's had a chance to do at Edmonton.

And so, you know, it might be a little more, you know, easy or more comfortable to stay in one spot where you've at least won and, you know, wait through and try to see through to the next chance to win. I mean, I think with Connor McDavid, there's just no question. And his focus is at another level already. I think he's putting absolutely every ounce of his effort and thought into trying to win a cup right now. He's at that point in his career where it's the only thing truly missing from his mantle. So, you know, I don't know how much we can learn from the past just because this would be truly unique. And I got to tell you, I came away this morning, this afternoon here in Calgary thinking, man, he might actually play this out a little longer.

and see how it goes. And I started thinking myself, I mean, how's this going to be covered? What's it going to look like around the league? And I'm not sure we've seen anything quite like it. If that's indeed how things go down. All right, CJ, we'll leave it there. Camp's opening up in a few weeks.

The orientation camp off and running out in Calgary. Hockey's in the air. It's a beautiful thing. Thank you for this. Right on, guys. Take care. Chris Johnson, Artisan Hockey Insider. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious,

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