Connor McDavid didn’t take home the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP this season. But the Edmonton Oilers captain still collected a piece of hardware that cements his place among the league’s elite: his sixth career First-Team All-Star selection.
The honor, announced Thursday via voting totals released by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, places McDavid among the most decorated players of his generation. He received 823 voting points, enough to earn a spot on the top team for the sixth time, alongside two Second-Team nods over his career.
That’s a remarkable tally that puts him in rare company — only a handful of players in NHL history have earned more First-Team selections, and McDavid is still just 29 years old.
A Season of Extremes
McDavid’s 2025-26 campaign was a statistical marvel even by his ridiculously high standards. He led the NHL in scoring with 48 goals and 90 assists for 138 points, the second-highest total of his career. Only his 153-point explosion in 2022-23 tops it.
But the Oilers’ regular season was a different story. Edmonton struggled with inconsistency, finishing with a middling record that forced them into a first-round playoff matchup against the Anaheim Ducks — a divisional opponent from Southern California that knocked them out in six games. It was a bitter ending for a team that had reached the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back seasons and saw those dreams vanish abruptly.
“It’s frustrating,” one league source said of Edmonton’s early exit. “They had the pieces, but they never quite clicked until it was too late.”
The Contract Question
McDavid signed a two-year, $12.5 million average annual value contract extension that kicks in this fall — a team-friendly deal that gives general manager Stan Bowman a short window to build around him. The cap hit is well below what McDavid could command on the open market, and it puts pressure on the front office to maximize that discount before the star forward hits free agency again.
Bowman hasn’t publicly commented on the roster plans, but fans and analysts alike are watching closely. McDavid has already piled up 409 goals and 811 assists in 794 career games, numbers that would make any franchise desperate to keep him happy.
What the All-Star Nod Means
For McDavid, the First-Team All-Star selection is another line on a Hall of Fame résumé that’s still being written. It also serves as a reminder that while the team fell short, the captain remains one of the most dominant forces in the sport. Whether that’s enough to lure another deep playoff run — or convince McDavid to stay long-term — is the story that will define Edmonton’s next two seasons.
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