Kent Hughes and Connor McDavid are officially linked in a major announcement nobody saw coming
Marc-Olivier Beaudoin just dropped a Sunday morning grenade into the Montreal Canadiens off-season.
The journalist reported on X that he's been told the Habs would be on Connor McDavid's very short list of preferred destinations if the Oilers captain ever decides to leave Edmonton.
The New York Rangers are reportedly the other team on that short list. Two of the most iconic franchises in the league. Both with the kind of market profile a generational player might want for his final chapter.
Beaudoin was careful with his framing. He's not saying McDavid has made any decision. He's not saying a trade has been requested. He's not saying Montreal would gut the franchise to make it happen.
He's saying that IF McDavid eventually wants out, the Canadiens are at the top of his list. That's a meaningful distinction in any rumor cycle.
The supporting detail makes the report harder to dismiss. McDavid reportedly used his trip to Montreal for the F1 Grand Prix to visit specific neighborhoods. Brossard and Westmount, per the report. The kind of locations a player scouts when he's thinking about future addresses.
Why this connects to the broader McDavid contract situation
Pierre LeBrun reported earlier this week on Melnick in the Afternoon that McDavid and Auston Matthews both still have to decide if they're staying put with their current teams. LeBrun believes both will stay at least one more year.
McDavid carries a full no-move clause. The Oilers can't force anything. Stan Bowman knows the leverage sits entirely on the player's side. The Edmonton head-coach search and front-office restructure are all happening with this exact uncertainty looming.
The 29-year-old just authored a 138-point regular season on a $12.5 million cap hit. 48 goals. 90 assists. The kind of production any contender would mortgage years of futures to acquire.
His current deal runs through the 2025-26 season. He becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2028. That gives the Oilers two more chances to convince him to stay before he can simply walk to a city of his choice.
GM Kent Hughes has built the Canadiens patiently. The team finished 6th overall at 48-24-10 with 106 points and just pushed Carolina to the brink in the Eastern Conference Final. The infrastructure exists.
Martin St-Louis would clearly relish coaching McDavid. The two share an instinctive offensive mindset. The pitch from Montreal would write itself if it ever became real.
Honestly, this report fits a pattern. Players visit cities they're curious about. Insiders pick up the radar pings. The chatter follows the geography. Sometimes it leads to something real. Sometimes it leads to nothing.
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The Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky core would absorb McDavid the way few rosters in hockey could. The Habs already have the cap structure ahead of major contracts hitting. The pieces fit on paper.
The Oilers can't think about any of this just yet. Their immediate concerns are the head-coach hire (Bruce Cassidy or Peter Laviolette), the goalie situation, and the off-season trade market. McDavid's future is the long shadow over every one of those decisions.
The rumor mill keeps spinning. Beaudoin's framing was responsible. The implications were not.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 29, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jackson Blake | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexander Nikishin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Phillip Danault | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||