I doubt very many viewed it like that.
I view it as, winning the cup is on the only thing that matters and makes a successful season.
Not that they’ll leave if they don’t win a cup.
Pretty much this.
Some posters choose to be as negative as possible and hope for the worst it seems though
I don't view it as negative but a realistic view.
If a player can make $100+ million playing anywhere in North America... which McDrai surely can on their next contract... would they necessarily choose the same place again where they have been for the last 11 years and they haven't reached the goal of a SC at that point?
Is Edmonton the premier destination to win that ultimate prize (and winning a championship is very likely the top motivator if not the sole motivator for a player that will have $200+ million in their pockets by the end of their careers). If after 11 years... they still haven't achieved a berth in the SC final would they likely not want to move to another environment that gives them a better chance at that ultimate prize?
There are only so many years of peak and near peak performance where a player can really move the needle in giving their team a higher than average chance at winning a SC... after those peak years a player is highly likely to regress to the mean and become "average" players eventually. It's like a biological clock and players want to have the best opportunity to win it all while they can. Otherwise they have to basically "get lucky" like a Ray Bourque going to a Colorado team very late in their careers.
This isn't even considering other factors such as:
-No Canadian team has won a cup in ~30 years... there's something there that shows Canadian teams either aren't managed well and/or can't be as competitive as American teams when it comes to assembling SC caliber teams for whatever reasons (some contributing factors listed below). Trading and free agency isn't necessarily the same for Canadian teams vs American teams obviously.
-Taxation factors where some locations in the USA are clearly superior in reducing the tax load on high income earners... so in essence you pay a penalty to play in some locations in Canada. This may not be a huge factor when you are making hundreds of millions of dollars but it still may be a small consideration.
-Weather/climate/location considerations of staying in a region such as Edmonton. Some players and their wives/girlfriends don't mind the environment and climate at all while others would clearly be elsewhere given a choice.
I don't think when you put all the above considerations together... it isn't being pessimistic but rather realistic to think that after 11 years in one place... a player might want to move on if they haven't achieved the ultimate goal.
