It's nice to see that the Panthers dominated the Oilers so their fans don't have any excuses.
The real questions is if McDavid stays or not. It's a huge risk for him if he wants to win a cup. He will be 29 next season. Realistically, McDavid has 7 years of prime hockey left.
Next year, the Oilers will be more-or-less the same team unless they can make trades, but they don't have any assets to trade. Skinner and Pickard are signed for 1 more year. They have no draft picks. They have no prospects coming up. Perry, who was their 3rd best forward down the stretch, is going to retire. Guys like Nothing Happens, Hyman, Kane, Ekholm, etc are 1 year older.
The following year is when they will have a lot of cap space freed up but they will have to sign McDavid for somewhere near league maximum, Pissy is making 14M, Nurse 9.25M, and Bouchard 10+M. Hyman and Nothing Happens who will be 35 and 34 respectively at a combined 10.625M. Janmark who will be ineffective. Jack Campbell still on the books. This will be in the realm of $65M, and they will need to have to sign 7 starting forwards, 5 starting D, a starting goalie and backup. Odds are low that any prospects they have are on entry level contracts playing a pivotal role on the team. The cap is projected to be 104M, so they'll have an average of 3M per player to fill their roster. This will mean more of the same thing - lack of depth and youth and they will be that much older.
McDavid, please think for yourself, get out of Edmonton and go win a cup while you can.
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