If you want to under the Edmonton Oilers season, start with Thursday night, and maybe rewind a few years. Because when the Anaheim Ducks closed out a 5-2 win in Game 6, knocking Edmonton out before May even began, it felt weirdly familiar. The last time Anaheim won a playoff series was back in 2017. The opponent then was Edmonton. Now nearly a decade later, history has repeated itself. But this time it hit harder given that the team had reached such highs in recent seasons. And it pushed Captain McDavid to share his frustration with the season.

Right after the Game 6 loss on May 1, McDavid was honest in the post-game press conference. “I mean, it’s been the whole year. We’ve been searching for consistency all year. Obviously, we didn’t find it here in the playoffs,” he said.

Then Connor McDavid added a shocking line about the team, “We were an average team all year. You know, an average team with high expectations, you’re going to be disappointed… We just never found it.” He seemed angry, frustrated and dissapointed. After all, the series itself told a similar story.

Edmonton started well with a Game 1 win, but Anaheim quickly flipped the momentum in Game 2. Game 3 turned into a rough night for the Oilers, a 7-4 loss where the Ducks broke things open late. Game 4 went even tighter but still ended Anaheim’s way in overtime, putting Edmonton down 3-1. They fought back in Game 5 with a 4-1 win. But Game 6 never really swung their way. Anaheim controlled it early, winning it 5-2. The series was another disappointing loss for the Oilers, ending their postseason hopes altogether.  But this wasn’t just a one-series issue either.

Edmonton had reached the Stanley Cup Final in both 2024 and 2025, losing both times to Florida, but this time, they didn’t even make it out of the first round for the first time since 2021. They also posted their lowest percentage of points in the regular season (.567) since 2018-19.

Honestly the physical toll the players have gone through is difficult to ignore. McDavid didn’t look quite like himself after tweaking his ankle early in the series. So while the speed was there in flashes, the routing plays were not that clean. Including a miscue that led to Anaheim’s empty-net goal.

With Connor McDavid at the helm, expectations around the Edmonton Oilers were always going to be sky high. So when the season unraveled the way it did, the spotlight naturally swung back to him. That’s how it works in Edmonton, when things fall short, the conversation almost always circles back to McDavid, even when the issues run far deeper than just one player.

Connor McDavid’s short-term deal keeps Edmonton’s future in focus

Connor McDavid signed a two-year extension last October at $12.5 million per year. It keeps him in Edmonton through the next few seasons and gives the Oilers a clear window to build a real contender around him. At the same time, it also keeps his long-term future open. He can still become a free agent in 2028 at age 32, which was a key part of why the deal was structured this way.

When he signed it, Connor McDavid was clear about his thinking. “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.”

Even after another early exit, there is no public sign that he wants out or is pushing for a trade. But the structure of the deal keeps attention on every season. Nothing feels settled when the timeline is short, and the results keep falling short of expectations.