- McDavid is starting a two-year, $25 million deal that runs through 2027-28
- A projected $123 million cap in 2028-29 would set his max cap hit near $24.6 million
- Read below for the full breakdown of what McDavid’s next contract could look like
Connor McDavid’s next contract is still two years away, and the projections are already getting silly.
Daily Hive’s Preston Hodgkinson mapped out what the Oilers captain could be looking at in 2028 and landed on a seven-year deal at $22 million per season. That comes to $154 million, nearly double his current cap hit, and it would make him the highest-paid player in hockey.
The deal he’s on now is the reason this conversation exists. McDavid re-signed last October for two years and $25 million, holding his cap hit at $12.5 million, the same number he’s carried since 2018.
Here’s Edmonton announcing it:
That number has aged badly in about ten months. Macklin Celebrini signed for five years at $18.8 million in San Jose. Leo Carlsson got $18 million on an offer sheet in Anaheim. Connor Bedard is at $15 million, Kirill Kaprizov at $17 million.
McDavid now sits ninth on the league’s salary list. He isn’t even the top earner in his own room, with Leon Draisaitl at a $14 million hit.
Celebrini is the one who reset the whole scale, and he did it at 20 years old:
The math on McDavid’s next one starts with the cap. A player can sign for a maximum of 20 percent of the ceiling in the year his deal kicks in. The ceiling is $104 million this season and is projected at $113.5 million for 2027-28.
Agent Allan Walsh has the 2028-29 figure around $123 million, which would put the individual max at roughly $24.6 million:
A seven-year max deal would total $172.2 million, easily the richest contract the league has ever handed out. Edmonton would sign that in a heartbeat.
Whether McDavid asks for it is the actual question. He’s given the Oilers a discount on both of his post-entry-level deals and has been clear that roster flexibility matters more to him than topping the pay chart.
He turns 32 in the first season of that next contract, so a third discount gets harder to justify. The floor in every one of these projections is Celebrini’s $18.8 million, and that is where talks would start for the best player in the world.
