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Greg Wyshynski
Multiple Authors
Although the Edmonton Oilers made two consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, star center Connor McDavid admitted this season’s roster was just “an average team” after being eliminated in the opening round by the Anaheim Ducks.
“It was tough. We were an average team all year. An average team with high expectations. You’re going to be disappointed,” he said after the Oilers’ 5-2 loss in Game 6 on Thursday night.
Edmonton played for the Stanley Cup in 2024 and 2025, losing twice to the Florida Panthers, the eventual champions. But this version of the Oilers, built by general manager Stan Bowman, failed to advance out of the first round for the first time since 2021. They also had their lowest regular-season points percentage (.567) since the 2018-19 season.
Injury speculation swirled around McDavid all series, as he wasn’t his usual dominant self against the Ducks. He tallied six points in six games but scored only one goal. Just two of his points were scored at even strength. In the Game 6 loss, McDavid didn’t tally a point and skated to a minus-3, with two giveaways and losing six of eight faceoffs.
McDavid admitted that the Oilers were fighting through injuries.
“Too hurt, too soon. The first round is always tough. It’s always chaotic, and it’s tough to play through things so early on as many guys did in here,” McDavid said. “That being said, it’s not an excuse, either. We expected to have a longer run than we did. It is what it is.”
Oilers star Leon Draisaitl noted that the team’s top three centers were all playing hurt.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to find ways to win games. Injuries? Yeah, they suck, and it hit us at a bad time. But at the end of the day, they were the better team,” Draisaitl said.
The quick exit from the playoffs immediately sparked speculation from fans and media about McDavid’s future in Edmonton.
McDavid, 29, signed a two-year contract extension ($12.5 million AAV) last October, giving Edmonton at least three seasons to build a Stanley Cup winner around him. The six-time NHL scoring leader is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028. McDavid took his time evaluating Edmonton’s contention window before settling on a short-term deal to stay with the Oilers.
“I obviously said I was committed to winning here, and I meant that when I said that, and two years makes a lot of sense,” McDavid said last October. “It gives us a chance to continue chasing down what we’ve been chasing down here with the core guys we have in here, and we have a little bit of money to work with, too.”
After eliminating the offensively challenged Los Angeles Kings in the first round for four straight seasons, the Oilers faced the high-scoring Ducks, who made the Stanley Cup playoffs cut for the first time since 2018 under new coach Joel Quenneville. The Ducks built a 3-1 series lead before closing out Edmonton 4-2.
The Ducks engineered a 2-0 lead Thursday night just 13:43 into Game 6 on a bouncing-puck goal by Ryan Poehling and a one-timer from Chris Kreider. Defenseman Connor Murphy cut the lead to 2-1 for Edmonton, but Cutter Gauthier scored his fourth goal of the series just 1:36 later for the 3-1 lead in the first period.
“They played very fast, and we weren’t very fast. They had a good start. We didn’t. We were chasing the game,” McDavid said. “That’s been the whole year. We’ve been searching for consistency the whole year. Obviously, we didn’t find it in the playoffs.”
Troy Terry scored his third goal of the series with 37 seconds left in the second period to give the Ducks a 4-1 lead. Edmonton’s Vasily Podkolzin was credited with a goal just 1:13 into the third period to give the Oilers some life, but the Ducks closed it out with an empty-netter from Leo Carlsson.
“That’s a real hockey team over there,” Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said.
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