EDMONTON — Things We (Think We) Know. Series V, Volume I.

I’ve covered 35 years of the National Hockey League, give or take. Which means I’ve been to 35 years of exit interview press conferences, roughly speaking.

Not once — on a team I was covering or some other team that I watched from afar — have I heard the top two franchise players come out in such strong unison about the need for fundamental change the way Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid did on Saturday morning in Edmonton.

Together, they eviscerated their front office with quotes both literal and implied.

And when Draisaitl, invoking McDavid’s contract status, said, “He is signed for two more years, and God knows where that goes,” he broke the sacred covenant among hockey players of never opining on anyone else’s contract status. That’s how passionate Draisaitl was: he forgot to remain cool and say as little as possible.

This is good. They do this because they care.

Things We (Think We) Know

The passion and desperation outlined above weren’t phony. These guys are well aware that the window is closing, that the Oilers may opt to trade McDavid a year from now if he won’t re-sign, and that they all — players and management — lost the plot this past season.

That sets the 2026-27 season up as a “Last Dance” to some extent. Because there is no guarantee the 'Nuclear Option' will exist in Edmonton in 2027-28.

So, if you can entrust the reinvigorating of Edmonton’s dressing room to the current leadership group — and I see no reason why you would not — then the true unknown falls to the people who........

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