Connor McDavid said the Edmonton Oilers did not grow complacent during a season that ended in their earliest playoff exit in five years, but the captain conceded his club failed to work through the checkpoints a contending team needs to clear before the postseason.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday after an informal team skate in Edmonton, McDavid said he is healthy and rested heading into a training camp that opens next week under new coach Mike Babcock, NHL.com reported.
“I don’t want to say we took it for granted or there was complacency,” McDavid said, according to NHL.com. “When you go to the Cup Final two years in a row, you feel pretty good about your group and you feel pretty good that when it matters, you’re going to be able to turn it on. Who knows without injuries maybe we could, but you never know.”
“But the League is too good. Teams are too good to not go through the checkpoints that you have to go through in the season, and I think you see that here today. Guys are already going hard and getting ready for camp, and we want to hit the ground running this year.”
The Oilers lost to the Anaheim Ducks in six games in the Western Conference First Round last spring. It was Edmonton’s earliest elimination since the Winnipeg Jets swept it in the opening round in 2021, and it followed consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, both lost to the Florida Panthers. Since 2021 the Oilers have played 81 playoff games and gone 45-36, the heaviest postseason workload of any club in the league over that span, according to NHL.com.
That volume of hockey is part of why McDavid described a longer summer as useful rather than frustrating. “I’m just excited. It was enough time to miss the game for a little while,” he said. “That’s a good thing. I missed playing, missed being with the guys and that brings energy. You can feel the energy around the room. It’s all positive.”
The bigger change is behind the bench. Babcock, hired in the offseason, ranks 12th in NHL history with 700 wins and won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. He has not coached in the league since the Toronto Maple Leafs fired him 23 games into the 2019-20 season. He is McDavid’s sixth head coach since the captain’s rookie year in 2015-16 and the eighth for Leon Draisaitl, who debuted in 2014-15.
“He comes in with a long history of success,” McDavid said of Babcock. “He’s won the big one, he’s won (Olympic) gold medals, coached in every single big game. His coaching record speaks for itself. Not to say that we haven’t had other guys like that, but I think there’s no question he’s a little bit different.”
McDavid said the two have spoken repeatedly since the hiring. “There’s been conversations, lots of conversations throughout the summer. It’s all been very positive, been very good, (and) everything is in a great place coming to camp.”
The on-ice case for Edmonton has not changed much. McDavid led the NHL last season with 138 points, on 48 goals and 90 assists. Draisaitl added 97 points, on 35 goals and 62 assists, in 65 games. Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and defenceman Evan Bouchard remain core pieces, and the club added defenceman Ryan Shea and goaltenders Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi in the offseason.
Andersen, who won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes last season, will not be available when camp opens. The Oilers announced on Aug. 26 that Andersen and forward Matt Savoie are rehabilitating injuries sustained during off-season training, while forward Mattias Janmark and defenceman Alec Regula continue to recover from medical procedures. The team said updates would be provided when appropriate.
Wednesday also brought the first public remarks from winger Alex Formenton, whom Edmonton signed to a one-year, $850,000 contract that morning. “I just want to say I’m very grateful to the Katz family, Stan Bowman, Jeff Jackson, and Mike Babcock for giving me this opportunity,” Formenton told reporters, according to Daily Hive. “It was a difficult road. It was tough on my family and me personally.”
McDavid is entering the first season of a two-year contract worth $25 million, an average annual value of $12.5 million. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2028.
For now, the captain said the room reads the way he wants it to read. “Guys are all-in here; I don’t know how else to say it,” he said. “Guys have really put their egos aside and guys are here to win and that’s what we want, and we want a coach that matches our intensity and our energy and feel (Babcock) does that.”
The Oilers host Fan Day at Rogers Place and Ice District on Saturday, Sept. 19, the club announced Sept. 8. Edmonton opens the regular season at home against the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 29.
Sources: NHL.com (Derek Van Diest, Sept. 9, 2026), the Edmonton Oilers’ official releases of Aug. 26 and Sept. 8, 2026, and Daily Hive (Colton Pankiw, Sept. 9, 2026).
