McDavid thinks Oilers have enough in the tank to improve
The whistle blew and Connor McDavid took off.
With the puck on his stick and a crowd of campers urging him on, the Edmonton Oilers captain raced toward a set of obstacles that were meant to mimic a team full of defenders. One by one, he deked around them all, carving tight circles into the ice.
The drill was designed to simulate a game situation. But in this case, it must have felt even more real. After all, there was no one to pass to.
A two-time defending Art Ross Trophy winner, McDavid scored a league-best 108 points last season. But unlike Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux (102 points) or Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (100 points), what made his offensive display even more impressive was that he did it without a steady supporting cast.
McDavid’s linemates last year ranged from rookies learning the ropes (Kailer Yamamoto and Ty Rattie) to centremen-turned-wingers (Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) to whatever warm bodies Edmonton had lying around.
While McDavid and secondline centre Draisaitl both finished in the top 35 in scoring, their next-best forward ranked outside the top 120.
“I think you’re just looking for a little bit of chemistry,” McDavid said Tuesday after participating at a hockey skills camp. “It’s funny that we’re still talking about it. It’s been three years now. I was able to find a little chemistry with Nuge and Ty Rattie at the end of the year. You hope to come into training camp and stay with someone and build your game with someone.”
If McDavid is going to find chemistry, it will have to be with a retread. The same team that finished in 12th place in the Western Conference last season and had the 12th-worst offence has so far not used the summer to dramatically improve its roster.
Jeff Skinner, who the Buffalo Sabres acquired in a trade last week, would have looked great next to McDavid. On a smaller scale, even Conor Sheary or Thomas Vanek would have been upgrades over what Edmonton currently has. But while the teams around them were making moves, the Oilers stood pat.
Their big free-agent additions have been depth forwards Tobias Rieder, who scored 12 goals and added 13 assists with Arizona and Los Angeles last season, and Kyle Brodziak, who had 10 goals and 23 assists with St. Louis.
Neither are expected to see any time with McDavid. Then again, based on the rotating door of linemates he’s had in the last few seasons, don’t rule anything out.
“I think the message has been all along that if there was a move to be made, they were going to make it. But nothing too promising came up,” said McDavid. “That’s good. You want to keep the group together. We were a good team two years ago. Obviously the team we were last year wasn’t up to our standards. It’s important that we get back to our level.”