TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun discusses the latest on Connor McDavid’s contract extension talks in Edmonton, the Wild and Kirill Kaprizov, and the Rangers naming former Canuck J.T. Miller as captain.
Gino Reda: Is Connor McDavid going to go into the final season of his contract with the Oilers without a new deal in place?
To speak to that and lots more, here’s our Insider Pierre LeBrun.
Pierre, as soon as McDavid became eligible to sign an extension back on July 1, we’ve been all asking the same question over and over again. Will the game’s best player have a new deal in place by the start of camp, Pierre?
Pierre LeBrun: Yeah, and I think everyone involved did a pretty good job of alerting everyone to the fact it was certainly never going to be a July 1st extension, so I think everyone in the Edmonton market and beyond was conditioned for that. But the real question as you say Gino, was would you have an extension before, never mind the start of camp, the start of the season next month? That’s the question.
And it is unanswered at the moment. What I can tell you on checking on it again on this day is that dialogue continues to be very cordial between McDavid and the Oilers and McDavid’s agent, Judd Moldaver, and obviously you’ve got Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman involved from Oilers management. A lot of philosophical discussions back and forth, that has not stopped at any point, no lines in the sand.
But there have not really been concrete numbers exchanged because that part of it I think everyone feels will be the easiest part if and when Connor McDavid is ready to do his extension. That will be a five-minute discussion between the agent and management because that’s not what this is about.
What this is about – and Connor McDavid, I think, has been very transparent when he’s talked to media here the past couple of weeks – this is about McDavid feeling comfortable with this decision and what the team is going to look like past this year and what’s the best course of action for him. He wants to win a Cup in Edmonton; there’s no question about it. But what makes sense for him going forward?
Listen, if I’m an Oilers fan, obviously I wish this was done by now and it may be done by puck drop next month. But it also may not be. And if that’s case, everyone has to understand that Connor McDavid will green-light his agent when he feels comfortable green-lighting his agent to go to the next phase, and that has not happened yet.
Reda: And the longer this drags out, we all know this Pierre, it’s just going to get louder and louder. Listen, no matter what happens, McDavid is in for an enormous pay day. Something that is also on the horizon for Kirill Kaprizov.
He just turned down a deal that would pay him $16 million per season. Pierre, is this no longer just about the money for him? And if that’s the case, do you think the Wild are going to have to seriously look at moving him?
LeBrun: That’s not their intention.
Again, I did some checking on this file today as well and what I can tell you is that the Minnesota Wild are not even entertaining trade calls from teams.
Teams are obviously trying to reach out but right now the Wild, what they’re telling everyone around the league, we’re still trying to sign him. And they believe they can. That’s important to note because I think when a player rejects a contract at that number, you kind of wonder where you go if you’re the Wild.
I’m not even sure there’s that many teams around the league would pay him $16 million a year. But that’s how important he is to the Minnesota Wild. They still hope to sign him.
I know that there are people in the Wild organization that believe Kaprizov actually wants to stay but this is his agent, Paul Theofanous, who has been around a long time, perhaps trying to get a little more in this negotiation. We’ll see.
But we just talked about the cordial vibes that remain in the McDavid/Oilers conversation. This is not cordial. This is a little more edgy, let’s just say, between Kaprizov’s agent and GM Bill Guerin. I think last week was very emotional and it’s not clear what the endgame here is.
But what I will say is this, I don’t think the Wild want to negotiate against themselves either. They feel they made an unbelievable offer at eight years, $16 million a year. I don’t know how much more they can move off there, but they may have to. And again, the question is, does Kaprizov want to stay or not? The Wild believe there is a chance he still does.
Harder to say from the player’s side. He [Kaprizov] has not spoken since all this broke. He’s set to meet the media in Minnesota on Thursday as camp kicks off, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say from his side of things.
My guess is he’ll be very limited in what he has to say and says he’s allowing negotiations to be handled by his agent, Paul Theofanous. A lot of teams around the league keeping a close eye on this because this one is a little more tense and could go a number of different ways. But for now, the Wild have not asked for a list of teams from Kaprizov, they still hope to sign him and I think that’s what you’ll hear from Bill Guerin when he also meets the media on Thursday.
Reda: I can’t let you go without asking about the interesting news out of New York City. The Rangers gave the ‘C’ to a guy who was in the middle of a nasty breakup in Vancouver last year, Pierre. Did you see this coming?
LeBrun: No, I did not. I mean, listen, I know the Rangers were really happy with J.T. Miller after the trade last year, that part for sure. But I could not tell you that I could’ve predicted he was going to be named captain and in fact, the Rangers will tell you that they feel that he’s been a tremendous leader for them since they acquired him, on and off the ice, in fact were the words from a Rangers source. They feel he’s the right choice to be captain.
Listen, a lot of eyebrows were raised. My phone exploded a bit from people around the league because it’s very public. His feud with Elias Pettersson and how that was handled – probably wouldn’t have been most people’s choice from outside the Rangers organization. But it shows you that J.T. Miller is comfortable in New York, he was happy to get dealt there and clearly, he’s handled his business the right way since he got there. We’ll see how it goes as Rangers captain.
Reda: Just some of the interesting stories our Insiders are working on right now. The full version of Insider Trading with Pierre, Dregs and CJ is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre that’s coming up later today.
