Hall-of-Famer Paul Coffey sees greatness in McDavid
Paul Coffey has seen enough of Connor McDavid to say with confidence that he has a chance to become the Next One.
“He’s special,” offered the Hall of Fame defenceman, who was in Regina on Friday for the Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner. “He’s grounded and loves the game. He’s gifted — a lot of it is God-given — but it’s for real. He works hard. I saw him play for probably four or five years in Toronto because he was a couple years older than my son. He’s a special kid.”
That’s no small endorsement coming from Coffey, who played with some of the greatest centres in NHL history. The Hall of Fame list is headlined by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, along with the likes of Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier, among others.
“There’s 99, there’s 66, then there’s the rest of them,” said Coffey, revealing his shortlist of alltime greats. “That’s no disrespect to anybody but that’s the way I saw the game. McDavid is good. I just hope he can stay healthy. He’s (19) years old. The scary thing is, I don’t know when his best is going to come. It might not come until he’s 33. Can you imagine seeing 15 years of him getting better and better and better?”
Although it’s a little early to mention McDavid in the same breath as his predecessors, Coffey has noticed some qualities which set him apart from today’s peers, including an innate ability to slow the game down while making plays at high speed.
McDavid’s world-class wheels are one of the traits he has in common with Coffey, who’s mentioned alongside Bobby Orr as one of the greatest offensive defencemen in NHL history.
Coffey hit his stride as a young player in Edmonton, teaming up with Gretzky, Messier, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr and Glenn Anderson, to name a few.
McDavid’s supporting cast includes young guns like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan NugentHopkins.
Despite a wealth of talent, the Oilers inability to qualify for the playoffs remains a puzzle.
Could McDavid be the one who puts it all together?
“He’s the missing link anywhere he goes,” noted Coffey, 54. “Is he going to make them an instant championship team? Absolutely not. It takes more than that or every great player would have won. You have to have people around you. They have a great coach and a great general manger who understands how to put a team together. They’re going to be smart enough to surround him with the pieces.”
There are some parallels between the current edition of the Oilers and the young stars who forged a dynasty in the 1980s.
There are also some key differences, especially on the back end and between the pipes.
“Grant Fuhr,” said Coffey, revealing one of the keys to Edmonton’s past success. “Andy Moog was pretty good, too.
“They have some good young guys coming up. They need somebody to be that control guy on the back end. You can have all the first picks you want but it’s a tough game to play until you really find out what your role is. Hall is finding that. Hopkins, Yakupov, Eberle, they’re finding that now. They have good (complementary) players too but so do the other teams.”
What those teams don’t have is No. 97.
“Call them lucky, call them what you want, but McDavid is an Edmonton Oiler and it’s great,” added Coffey. “It’s unfair to judge that team this year because he was hurt. Taylor Hall has had a phenomenal year. He stepped up. Hopkins is hurt now, (Jordan) Eberle has been hurt, Yakupov was hurt. Whenever they get them all together they can really see who fits and who doesn’t.”