It’s that time of year again, when superstars like Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid aren’t taking the playoffs by storm and questions linger around their futures with their respective franchises.
The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs went their own separate ways this season. One team limped to a spot in the playoffs, while the other bottomed out and somehow defied the odds to land the top pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Both McDavid and Matthews have one thing in common, though: they’ve both put their teams on the clock, starting this summer.
NHL Super Agent Pat Brisson Speaks on Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews’ Stance
NHL super agent Pat Brisson, the man who represents Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Jack Hughes, John Tavares, and a legion of big names in this league, made an appearance on ‘The Sheet With Jeff Marek’ this week in the aftermath of the Leafs winning the 2026 draft lottery.
Brisson started by saying that he was surprised by the Leafs winning the lottery despite having a mere 8.5% chance, and was also surprised by the San Jose Sharks landing the #2 pick. The conversation then veered to two of the biggest names in the league: McDavid and Matthews.
McDavid’s two-year, $25 million extension kicks in this summer, whereas Matthews has two years left on his $53 million contract. As such, both the Leafs and the Oilers have a short leash to make the best of the two players’ primes.
Brisson was asked for his take on McDavid and Matthews standing pat on their two-year windows, and if this could become a bigger trend across the league.
“I wouldn’t call it a trend, I’d call it more where society is in general,” Brisson said on the show. “People aren’t afraid to express their opinions, they aren’t afraid to make decisions or hire and fire people. It’s just the world we live in now. It’s gonna become more and more that. You’re gonna see more and more short-term deals and guys moving.”
With the salary cap increasing, Brisson’s words could become gospel. Just this week, the league notified teams that the salary cap for the coming season will clock in at $104 million, an $8.5 million increase from last year. This summer also represents the last opportunity for teams to tie their own players down to eight-year contracts, since the new CBA only allows a maximum of seven years.
Those factors make this summer a particularly interesting one to keep an eye on.
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For the Oilers, building around two of the best players in the world is, as always, the key. They will have $16.5 million in cap room this summer, per PuckPedia. However, Jason Dickinson, Connor Murphy, Jack Roslovic, Connor Ingram, Kasperi Kapanen, and Adam Henrique are all eligible to test free agency.
For the Leafs, they will have about $22 million to work with. Add Gavin McKenna’s entry-level contract to that, and Toronto has a real opportunity to swing big this summer. However, that is easier said than done, given the fact that their cupboard’s bare when it comes to assets to dangle in trades.
