TORONTO – Connor McDavid will have to wait at least another 11 months to play his first NHL game at Air Canada Centre. He won’t have to wait as many months as feared to get back into game action.
Originally considered out “months” with a broken left clavicle, McDavid said Monday that his rehab is ahead of schedule. This year’s top draft pick who was injured Nov. 3 isn’t skating yet, but he says he’s pain free and hopes to be back sooner than expected.
“Obviously it’s healing well,” McDavid said. “It’s kind of the long run where it feels good and you want to start doing everything, but at the end of the day you’ve still got to let it heal.”
McDavid, considered a generational talent, had five goals and seven assists in his first 13 games with the Oilers. That kind of start made him a front-runner for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
He was starting to feel comfortable at the pro level when he slammed into the boards in Edmonton against the Philadelphia Flyers and broke his collarbone.
Coach Todd McLellan called McDavid a “catalyst” who made teammates, namely Nail Yakupov, better.
“We think that Connor is one of our top players as an 18-year-old,” McLellan said before Edmonton’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “He had proven he could be that when he was playing. You take anybody’s star player, or one of their star players, out of the lineup, it’s a big hole to fill.”
The Oilers were 5-8-0 with McDavid in the lineup and are 3-6-2 since. A victory in Pittsburgh on Saturday made for a better mood around the team, but it’s clear there’s a ways to go.
From afar, McDavid sees a team that is close to winning but not close enough.
“We just seem to find ways to lose games,” McDavid said. “I know that’s not an excuse or anything like that, it’s a mindset, and if we could find a way to switch some of those one-goal games around we’d be in a much different situation.”
McDavid said he’ll let doctors figure out when he’ll be able to return. In the meantime he’s warming up his shoulder before working out and trying to stay in shape.
Mentally it has been difficult on McDavid to miss so much time early in his professional career. Canadian world junior teammate Darnell Nurse said he and other Oilers players have been trying to keep McDavid’s spirits up.
McDavid’s agent and Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr was also at Air Canada Centre on Monday morning. The young player said the support he has received from the hockey community has been strong.
“The hockey world is great like that, they’re all great guys,” McDavid said. “It’s special to be a part of, and to have the support of those guys. Not only the hockey guys, but even the fans and family and friends obviously, I’m very lucky to be getting the support I’m getting.”
McDavid was back in the building he won a gold medal in with Canada last winter, the same place he grew up watching Maple Leafs games as a fan from nearby Newmarket. He was disappointed not to be able to take the ice in Toronto for the first time in the NHL.
“Obviously this one hurts a lot,” McDavid said. “You want to play here in your hometown. I was definitely looking forward to this one, for sure. It sucks, but it is what it is. Maybe for the World Cup. We’ll see.”
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