When the most anticipated announcement of the 2016 NHL preseason finally came to fruition, I envisioned myself coming up with a laundry list of reasons why naming Connor McDavid captain would be a case of “too much, too soon” for the Edmonton Oilers’ blossoming superstar.
A 19-year-old with half a season under his belt trying to share his wisdom with a 30-something-year-old veteran? Yeah, OK. An NHL sophomore trying to light a fire under the ass of a slumping teammate? Love to know how that’d go.
I spent the better chunk of my afternoon scouring the web and aiming to load up on ammunition, only to find that every quote and every story from current and former teammates, coaches, management, World Cup compatriots and beyond pointed toward one thing and one thing alone:
Maybe McDavid has the chops after all.
“He’s mature beyond his years, so he’s dealt with all of you since he was 14,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said Wednesday. “He handles himself very well and takes care of his teammates in front of and with the media, which we think is very important in a Canadian franchise.”
Milan Lucic, who’s no stranger to lead-by-example types (Boston’s Zdeno Chara and Los Angeles’ Dustin Brown), commended the new Oilers captain for his complete lack of ego.
“He’s a very humble kid. He doesn’t put himself above anyone else just because of his abilities and I think that’s what makes him such a great leader,” said Lucic, who will sport an ‘A’ as an alternate captain with his new club this season.
Zdeno Chara of Team Europe keeps the puck away from Connor McDavid, the captain for Team North America during the World Cup. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
Like Sidney Crosby, Gabriel Landeskog and Jonathan Toews, McDavid is being thrust into a leadership role in part because he’s now the unquestioned face of the franchise. The No. 1 overall pick in 2015’s rookie season was shortened due to a clavicle injury, but he still managed to rack up 48 points in 45 games — an 82-game pace of 87 points, which would have placed him third in the entire league if he’d played out the entire season at that clip.
“He’s not going to be a rah-rah guy in the locker room,” Jordan Eberle, who’ll also be serving as an alternate captain, said. “But as far as a team on the ice, when we need a big play to be made, he’s definitely the first guy we’re looking toward.”
Outside of his on-ice dominance, the biggest selling point for McDavid sporting the ‘C’ is perhaps how firmly vocal he was about losing during his wrap-up session with the media at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.
“I know losing is something that’s happened a lot here in Edmonton for a while now and I think it just gets to a point where you have to just be so sick of losing that you can’t do it anymore,” McDavid said. “I think a lot of guys are definitely at that point. I’m a guy who definitely doesn’t handle losing well, so this year has definitely been hard on me, but I definitely hope that’s something we can change next year.”
Expectations will now be even greater for McDavid to make that happen. After 10 straight season of missing the playoffs and multiple departures of former top picks that couldn’t get the Oil back there, the city of Edmonton is praying its fresh-faced prodigy can handle the pressure and put an end to a decade of embarrassing futility.
Nobody has a bigger part to play in leading the Oilers’ turnaround than McDavid. Don’t begrudge him the captaincy, because he’s probably going to pull that off.
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