McDavid pens heartfelt letter declaring loyalty to Edmonton Oilers
There is nowhere Connor McDavid would rather be than playing with the Edmonton Oilers.
Questions about McDavid’s loyalty to the Oilers reached a peak before the season. The 29-year-old superstar was coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup Final defeats and hadn’t signed an extension before the season. Anxiety was at an all-time high in Oil Country that McDavid would play out the final year of his contract and sign elsewhere in the summer.
Then McDavid inked a two-year contract extension at a bargain-bin price days before the season-opener, and those fears were alleviated. However, some still worried, as the Oilers captain opted to sign a short-term deal rather than a long-term one. Could these be the last few years of #97 in Oilers jersey?
If we are to read into a recent letter penned by McDavid for The Player’s Tribune, it certainly doesn’t sound like he’s planning to leave the Alberta capital anytime soon.
“I want to be remembered as a winner. But not just anywhere. Here. To be in this city during a Cup run, to feel that buzz. It just wouldn’t be the same somewhere else,” McDavid wrote. “I believe in this group. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have signed my extension.
“I don’t want to play golf. I don’t want to sit by the pool. I don’t want to be in the Bahamas. I don’t need a break or a fresh start. I just want to be in Edmonton, playing hockey.”
“I don’t need a break, or a fresh start. I just want to be in Edmonton, playing hockey. I want to get back there again, whatever it takes. If that sounds like a robot, then I guess I’m a robot.”
Connor McDavid, in his own words. https://t.co/YWcatIeXxK
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) February 2, 2026
Ever since McDavid was drafted by the Oilers, there has been a subset of fans who seem convinced that the three-time Hart Trophy winner is bound to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs at some point. After over a decade in Edmonton, that idea seems a bit preposterous at this point.
There is something to be said about the hunger that losing two straight Stanley Cup Finals with the same team can instill in a player. He told a funny story about the Game 7 loss in 2024 and how he went to a bachelor party in the Bahamas after the devastating moment.
“I was not fun to be around. Looking back, I almost have to laugh now. Because, man, it was just a weird trip. We tried to play golf, and it rained,” McDavid wrote. “So we sat around having a few beers at the clubhouse, and just talking about how sad we were about the series. We left after two nights.
“I remember sitting there, holding a beer and kind of staring into the distance like in the movies, just thinking back on the last few months like, ‘This isn’t how it was supposed to go.'”
There is a sense of unfinished business left for McDavid in Edmonton, and it sounds like he’s willing to stick around until he can sort that out.