An Unusual Deadline Could Add Pressure to McDavid Contract Talks
NHL insider Frank Seravalli pointed out a fascinating date on the Connor McDavid negotiations front. Monday afternoon, Seravalli got into a discussion about the timeline of a McDavid extension and said that seven days from today was a date (and a potential deadline) to watch on the calendar.
October 6th is the final date for NHL players to sign deferred salary contracts. Beyond that date, no player can sign that kind of contract. Does that impact Connor McDavid? Maybe not. However, NHL insider Frank Seravalli was a guest on Oilers Now and hinted this could be something to watch in the McDavid negotiations.
He wanted to impress that he was not saying McDavid is looking at a deferred salary, but did note that this was the kind of extension that could serve two purposes: bring the AAV down and get McDavid all of his money.
Seravalli used the example of a $120 million, eight-year deal. McDavid could defer as much as $40 million on that deal, bringing his contract down to a $10 million annual average salary cap hit instead of $15 million per season.
Deferred salary in the NHL means a player agrees to get part of their money later instead of all at once. For the team, it lowers the player’s current salary cap hit, giving them more room to sign other players. For the player, it can provide guaranteed payments after retirement or help manage taxes. Basically, the team spreads out the cost, and the player spreads out when they get paid.
Most players don’t want anything to do with deferred salaries, and they are extremely rare. They are a part of the CBA that the NHL has decided to do away with and Leon Draisaitl was reportedly asked when he signed his extension and had absolutely no interest in considering the option.
Beyond that, Seravalli said that if McDavid doesn’t sign by the start of the season, he’s not sure what the next leverage point would be for the Oilers to get their captain signed to an extension.
Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix and His Wife Izzy Smoke: Fast Facts You Need to Know
It’s been a quick ascent for Denver Broncos second year quarterback Bo Nix, who went from being the last of 6 quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft to runner-up for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Nix and the Broncos have high expectations in 2025 thanks to an elite defense featuring cornerback and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II and because of how well Nix played as a rookie.
Nix, 25 years old, comes from a longtime Southern football family. His grandfather, Conrad Nix, was a high school football coach for 43 years in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia while Nix’s father, Patrick Nix, was a 3-year starter at quarterback at Auburn, including an undefeated season in 1993.
Patrick Nix was also Bo Nix’s head coach at Pinson Valley (Alabama) High School, where Nix played with younger brother and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Tez Johnson.
Nix followed his father’s footsteps at Auburn, where he started for 3 seasons and was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2019. It was also where he met his future wife, Auburn cheerleader Izzy Smoke, before he transferred to Oregon for his final 2 seasons in 2022 and 2023.
With the Ducks, Nix rewrote the NCAA record books in 2 seasons, going 22-5 as the starter before he and Smoke headed to Denver on a 4-year, $18.6 million rookie contract.
“The day I met Bo, he told me about this God-sized dream of his. I will never stop praising the Lord for His faithfulness or have enough words to express how proud I am of you, Bo,” Smoke wrote on
Here’s some more facts about Nix and Smoke, who got married on July 2, 2022, in Alpine, Alabama:
Alabama Natives Who Met at Auburn
Smoke is a Birmingham, Alabama, native — just 2.5 hours northwest of Phenix City — and she married Nix shortly after she graduated from Auburn with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with minors in Psychology and Sport Coaching in May 2022.
The couple got engaged in September 2021.
After the wedding, Smoke and Nix packed up the U-Haul and headed west, traveling 2,600 miles across the country to Eugene, Oregon, where he joined 36-year-old first year head coach and former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.
The move to Oregon — and the move 2 years later to Denver — left both husband and wife still trying to bring all of their stuff with them from Alabama.
“When Bo and I got married back in 2022, we moved across the country to Oregon and left all of our wedding gifts unopened in Alabama,” Smoke told Mestiza New York
Unique Way Couple Spent Draft Day
Instead of heading to Detroit and getting drafted in front of 275,000 NFL fans at Detroit’s Hart Plaza, Nix and Smoke chose to watch the draft at his family’s home in Alabama surrounded by family and friends.
When Nix answered the call from Broncos general manager George Paton to tell him he was going to be drafted, the first question he asked was “You want to go win a Super Bowl?”
