McDavid Stars At Edmonton Oilers Prospect Scrimmage

The Connor McDavid era has begun. Two days after signing his rookie year contract the top pick in the 2015 NHL draft looked dominant in a scrimmage at the Edmonton Oilers Prospect Orientation Camp. McDavid had three goals in two 20-minute halves of 4-on-4 play and added two more in seven minutes of 3 on 3 play.

It was vintage McDavid–great instincts for the puck, fast hands, awareness of his teammates and the general ‘nose for the net’ that has made him the most highly touted NHL prospect in over a decade. After completely dominating the scrimmage, McDavid was back to his poised, low key self: “It was fun. Anytime you get a chance to play in front of fans like that, it’s always exciting. It was pretty competitive, just with the guys that we had, and they made a lot of great plays out there.”

McDavid summarized the six day orientation camp as a great learning experience: “We learned a lot, we had a lot of different meetings and all that. You just try to listen and you just want to be a sponge all week. That’s what you have to be doing, you have to be learning, and that’s what this week is all about.”

The city of Edmonton is thoroughly excited about the state of the Oilers–a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006. Much of that has to do with McDavid, though he managed to talk about the new mood of the franchise without giving any credit to himself: “I think this week gave me more of an understanding on how excited they are about the Oilers in general. They should be excited; there has been a lot of great changes, and they’ve brought in a lot of great hockey minds. They made a couple of trades and signed a couple of free agents that are very good players. I think there are a lot of reasons to be excited about this franchise moving forward.”

This was the first opportunity for McDavid to play in an Oilers’ uniform since he was drafted. Obviously, it’s going to get much more difficult but the ‘generational talent’ is off to a great start.