Edmonton on edge as Mats Sundin connection fuels Connor McDavid to Leafs speculation
Connor McDavid grew up worshipping Mats Sundin. And the Toronto Maple Leafs just made that fact a lot more interesting this Sunday.
Reports surfaced that Sundin is being lined up for a Vice President of Hockey Operations role in Toronto. The timing sits right on top of Edmonton's first-round collapse.
The Oilers were bounced by Anaheim in six games. Edmonton dropped Game 6 by a 5-2 score on April 30 and the season ended with more questions than answers.
McDavid was not himself. Six playoff games, one goal, five assists, a -8 rating. For a player that finished the regular season with 48 goals and 138 points, those numbers land like a thud.
So now Toronto is dangling a name from his childhood bedroom wall. Sundin. The captain young Connor wanted to be every time Hockey Night in Canada flickered on.
Brad Treliving, Brendan Shearer, the entire Leafs front office, they are reading the same calendar everybody else is. Edmonton has McDavid signed through the 2027-28 season. Then he can walk.
Auston Matthews could be the price of landing Connor McDavid
Matthews is heading toward the same expiry. He pulls in $13.25 million right now and just put up 27 goals in 60 games with a -4 rating in a year Toronto finished 28th overall.
That cap math gets ugly fast. McDavid, if he hits the open market, will torch $20 million per season without breaking a sweat.
You can't pay both. Not without gutting the rest of the roster. Toronto's record sits at 32-36-14, the goals-against piled up to 299, and the holes are not subtle.
Craig Berube watched his team close the year on a seven-game losing streak. That is the bed Sundin would be walking into. Recruiting McDavid is one job. Convincing Matthews to take a haircut, or to leave, is a separate one entirely.
Why would McDavid even consider it? Because Edmonton handed him a Stan Bowman roster, a Kris Knoblauch bench, and a postseason that ended at home to a wild-card opponent. That stings differently when you're 29.
The childhood-hero pull is real, though. McDavid name-checked Sundin and Darcy Tucker in his Players Tribune letter back in February. Kids do not forget the jersey they wore in living rooms.
Two summers from now, the Leafs need a clean cap sheet, a believable contender pitch, and a face in the front office that means something to the target. They might just have one of those three lined up already.
The other two are the hard part.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 2, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Logan Stankoven | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jackson Blake | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mike Reilly | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Denver Barkey | - | - | - | |
| Alex Bump | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Noah Cates | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Sean Couturier | - | - | - | |
| Jamie Drysdale | - | - | - | |
| Christian Dvorak | - | - | - | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | - | - | |
| Tyson Foerster | - | - | - | |
| Luke Glendening | - | - | - | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||