I know Connor McDavid signed his extension last year, and I know we’ve a year to digest the idea of him sticking around for two more years at $12.5 million per season starting this season, but sometimes the hockey world gives you a reminder of just how wild that number actually is.

We got yet another reminder of how great McDavid’s contract is this morning when Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year extension with the Sharks that kicks in for the 2027-28 season at $18.8 million per year, which is one of those numbers that makes you double-take even though we all know the cap is starting its climb to Mars.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s good for a guy like Celebrini to secure the bag. Same goes for Leo Carlsson after landing an $18 million offer sheet from Philadelphia that Anaheim had to match. Good for Bowen Byram for landing $12.5 million per season with Chicago in free agency, even though everyone thinks that deal is nuts. I’m not a guy who complains when players take the money that teams are putting on the table, because if someone wants to back up the Brinks truck and offers to sign you for nearly nine figures, I believe you sprint to the table and sign in blood if you have to. That’s pro sports, that’s flexing leverage, and that’s exactly how these guys should treat a finite career.

But numbers like we’re seeing right now are also what makes McDavid’s extension look so ridiculous from an Oilers perspective. The best player on earth could have asked for anything he wanted, and the Edmonton Oilers would have been thrilled to sign him to whatever that number was. He could have looked at where the cap was going, looked at what high-end players were projecting to get, and decided to reset the market in a way that would have made........

© Oilers Nation