A New Coach, an Old Question
The Edmonton Oilers open the 2026-27 NHL season at home against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night, the first regular-season game of the Mike Babcock era. Babcock, who led the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup in 2008, was hired after Edmonton fired Kris Knoblauch following a jarring first-round playoff exit to the Anaheim Ducks last spring. That collapse came just months after the Oilers had reached back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025, losing both times to the Florida Panthers. Goaltender Tristan Jarry is set to start the opener, and rookie forward Owen Michaels is in line to make his NHL debut on the same night.
Hanging over the fresh start, though, is the long-term future of captain Connor McDavid. Veteran NHL insider Frank Seravalli wrote this week that he does not expect McDavid to sign a contract extension with Edmonton when he becomes eligible next summer, predicting instead that the two-time Hart Trophy winner plays out the final season of his current two-year, $12.5 million-per-year deal before moving on.
Why a Blockbuster Trade Looks Unlikely
McDavid holds a full no-move clause, and according to Seravalli that detail shapes everything about how an exit would actually happen. Rather than approve a trade that strips assets from Edmonton's roster and hands his next team a weaker supporting cast on arrival, Seravalli argued McDavid would more likely push for a narrow sign-and-trade that moves only his rights for a modest return, comparing the scenario to how Mitch Marner's rights left Toronto last year. That would leave the Oilers with an uncomfortable choice: accept a light package now, or risk losing their captain for nothing when he reaches unrestricted free agency in 2027.
McDavid himself has given no public signal that he wants to leave, and Oilers management continues to frame Babcock's hiring and the roster moves around it as a commitment to building a winner around its captain, not a step toward moving on from him. Seravalli's prediction is speculation from one insider, not a confirmed plan from either side, but it lands at a pointed moment: the same week Edmonton is trying to prove, under a new bench boss, that last season's early exit was an aberration rather than a trend.
What Tonight Actually Settles
None of the contract questions get resolved on opening night. What tonight does settle is far more immediate: whether Babcock's Oilers look different from the team the Ducks eliminated in April. Edmonton and Vancouver play a home-and-home to open the season, with the return leg at Rogers Arena on Thursday, giving both Pacific Division rivals an early measuring stick before the schedule fans out. For McDavid, it is simply the first of 84 games in a contract year that the rest of the league will now be watching just as closely as Edmonton is.
