To be fair, if you were forced at gunpoint to pick one team that could spend fifteen years as a bottom feeder with a McDavid-caliber player, Edmonton would be it...

But on a more serious note, if you have to get rid of him for story purposes, it wouldn't be hard to make it even a little more plausible. Like he leaves as a UFA, or to chase a cup in his 30s. Moot point, though: I was somewhat willing to give the fic the benefit of the doubt that there would be a better explanation forthcoming, but now in the latest chapter there's some serious tampering played off like it's nbd so I'm officially done with this fic (which I'm not sure why I was even reading in the first place, tbh).