NHL superstar Connor McDavid showed the world that true sportsmanship extends far beyond the rink. The incident took place on a chilly winter day in Edmonton, where McDavid was out for a walk after a morning practice. As he strolled through a busy street, his attention was drawn to an elderly woman standing on a street corner, bundled up against the cold. She was selling homemade holiday decorations, clearly struggling against the freezing temperatures.
McDavid, known for his incredible skill on the ice, noticed that the woman’s hands were trembling as she tried to keep warm, and despite her best efforts, there were few customers stopping by. Something about the scene struck him deeply, and he couldn’t just walk past.
Without hesitation, McDavid approached the woman and struck up a conversation. He learned that she was selling the decorations to make ends meet after a tough year, and her health had made it increasingly difficult to work in the cold. Rather than simply offering a few dollars, McDavid did something that would leave a lasting impression.
He purchased every single decoration she had for sale, ensuring that her day was a little brighter. But that wasn’t all—McDavid also made a donation to her, asking her to take the money and spend it on anything she needed, from warm clothes to food.
The act was caught on camera by a bystander and quickly went viral. Fans and non-fans alike praised McDavid’s generosity and thoughtfulness. His selfless gesture served as a powerful reminder that kindness and compassion are the real victories in life, showing that Connor McDavid’s heart is as big as his talent on the ice.
Connor McDavid turns 28 today, and his Edmonton Oilers are aging right along with him
Let’s do this! The Cult of Hockey podcast. By the Faithful and for the Faithful. Today Bruce McCurdy and David Staples dig into the Oilers of Edmonton’s 4-3 win over the Blackhawks of Chicago.
For just the second time in his remarkable decade in the National Hockey League, Connor McDavid will play a home game on his birthday tonight as his Edmonton Oilers host their fierce Pacific Division rival, the Los Angeles Kings. The prior such occasion doubled as the home and season opener of the COVID-delayed 2021 season. This time, it’s a midseason game, befitting a January birthday.
Fair to say that McDavid, who turns 28 today, has lived up to the hype that preceded him. He belongs in that small class of Canadian hockey superheroes who were already national celebrities by 16: among them Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Sidney Crosby.
Every one of those famous youngsters save the injury-plagued Lindros can today be found among the NHL’s all-time top 10 list of points-per-game:
McDavid stands out as the greatest producer of the modern era, indeed he is the only player in the top eight to play in the salary cap era while all of the others played in the high-scoring 1970’s and/or the higher-scoring 1980s. #9 Peter Forsberg has a foot in both the 20th and 21st centuries, while the superb Crosby grimly hangs on to his 10th place spot in his twilight years.
It has been Edmonton’s great fortune that two names from that short list played the first decade of their professional careers in our fair city. Locals fervently hoping that McDavid’s time here will stretch deep into a second decade in the manner of Crosby in Pittsburgh. All signs point in that direction: his best friend Leon Draisaitl, a year ahead of McDavid on the renegotiation curve, just committed to eight more years in Edmonton. More promising still, Connor’s new wife Lauren Kyle McDavid has recently launched a couple of business projects with a decidedly local angle: Oilers-themed clothing and a restaurant in the heart of downtown Edmonton. Doesn’t sound like a family planning to pull up stakes any time soon, does it?
On the ice, McDavid has been nothing short of sensational, winning pretty much every individual award available: the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring champ (5x); the player-voted Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player (4x); the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP (3x); the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals (1x) and the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP (1x). But team honours, specifically the Stanley Cup, have eluded him and the Oilers.
The squad came within a single win of hoisting the grail last spring, and are dead set on returning to the Stanley Cup Finals to finish the job in 2025. The management team’s singular focus on that goal can be seen in the make-up of the group that has been built around their centrepiece player.
It’s astonishing to consider that despite his decade in the NHL including nine seasons as Oilers captain, that McDavid remains one of the youngest players on the hockey club. Just four teammates are younger than he: goalie Stu Skinner, defenders Evan Bouchard and Ty Emberson, and a single forward in Vasily Podkolzin. For today’s deep dive we will consider just the forwards on the active roster, listed here from youngest to oldest:
It’s a veteran group to say the least, with just 4 players under the age of 30. The other 9 are all over-30s, or will be starting tomorrow when the youngest of them, Connor Brown, turns 31.
Just 3 of these players were drafted by Edmonton (orange background in Draft Yr coloum), with the other two — Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — having been selected in the years preceding McDavid. It’s a sad fact that all the drafting and internal development the Oilers have done over the past decade has borne zero fruit on the front lines, at least that can be found on the present version of the team.
The current list is heavily populated by veterans from other organizations, acquired as unrestricted free agents, the trade route or the waiver wire. In several cases, a clear choice was made of an older player over a younger alternative: Adam Henrique over Ryan McLeod, Viktor Arvidsson over Warren Foegele, arguably Jeff Skinner over Dylan Holloway.
Following up on that observation, here is the full list of forwards younger than McDavid from any source who have played on the squad at any time over his time here, again listed from youngest to oldest:
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A few draftees by the team, every single one of them selected in the top 40. All have moved on, notably Dylan Holloway to a hostile offer sheet after the Oilers capped themselves out this past summer. The only three to play as many as 100 games in Edmonton, Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto and Jesse Puljujarvi, were traded, the latter two being outright cap dumps. All were draft picks from the Peter Chiarelli era.
Of the entire group of young forwards shown here, McDavid has logged 39% of the games played with the Oilers, 69% of the goals, 74% of the points. The supporting cast from the Department of Draft and Develop has been found wanting in every single instance.
Three players on this list remain within the organization. None of them were drafted by the club. Podkolzin was acquired via trade in the immediate aftermath of the Holloway departure as new GM Stan Bowman at least attempted to address the void of young players on the squad. Entry level free agents James Hamblin and Noah Philp are currently in Bakersfield, with some hope that Philp in particular may yet graduate to a big league job. He’s not exactly a young prospect himself, having technically aged out for Calder Trophy consideration.
Compare and contrast the first of the above lists with a similar one detailing tonight’s opponents, the Los Angeles Kings.
Of those 13 forwards currently on the active roster, 8 were drafted by the Kings, including 5 between 2018-21. A relative handful of (key) players were acquired on the market, be they free agent or trade. But in general, a mix between external acquisition and internal renewal.
The good news for Oilers fans is there is not a McDavid to be found on tonight’s visiting team, and the closest comp for Draisaitl is 37 year old Anze Kopitar. The McDrai Advantage is Edmonton’s single biggest edge against the NHL in general, and the Kings are no exception. Indeed, they relearned this harsh (for them) truth the last three springs running.
Casting a wider net across the Pacific Division, here’s a summary of the top five clubs a.k.a. playoff contenders, including the Oilers, Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames. Again, forwards only, current active rosters only:
The Oilers are the oldest group by any measure. They have the two oldest forwards in Corey Perry and Derek Ryan and are the only squad not to have a single forward aged 22 or younger. Indeed, they have the fewest forwards among the quintet in both the 20-24 and 25-29 groups.
Note the average age on the bottom line, reflecting the Oilers forward group is fully 3 years older than any of the others. Also note that this figure was calculated on integer age; normal distribution of birthdays should have the effect of raising each team’s average by 0.5 year.
Conclusions
It’s not the intent of this post to determine best practices nor to opine on them, which we will leave to the reader. For today’s purposes we merely note the facts on file which reflect the different approaches taken by the identified teams to build a contender.
Among them, the 2024 runners-up from Edmonton and 2023 champions from Vegas are the closest to “win now” mode, with Oilers in particular consisting of a veteran supporting cast constructed around a pair of superstars at the peak of their powers.
Tonight’s line-up
A significant change in approach as the Oilers will go with 7 defencemen and just 11 forwards. Josh Brown draws back into the line-up, perhaps in anticipation of some rugged play from the visitors. Up front, Derek Ryan will join Jeff Skinner in the press box, highly suggestive that the other centres will take extra shifts with the fourth-line wingers.
Zero surprise that Stu Skinner gets the start after a night off on Saturday. With 4 games in 4 cities over the next 6 days, expect both stoppers to see action with Skinner likely to play 3 of the 4.
Game time is 7:30pm MST, with the game televised on Sportsnet West, not Amazon Prime despite it being a Monday.
