Connor McDavid Resumes Skating

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Some very good news for the Edmonton Oilers and their fans on Friday. GM Peter Chiarelli told the media that Connor McDavid has been skating for the past week back in Edmonton. The team is about to conclude it’s four game road trip and the rookie was noticeably absent, not traveling with the group.

While Edmonton has gone 1-2-0 on it’s trip, McDavid has been working hard to get back into the fold and join the Oilers as they hope to make a push for the postseason. As of now, they sit just two points back of Calgary for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division. The Oilers are still alive.

McDavid went down in early November, meaning the two month mark is right around the corner, just about two weeks off. When Patrick Kane suffered the same injury a year ago, he was back in the lineup just under two months later, and he was 100%. Obviously, players heal differently, but McDavid is approaching the anticipated return mark.

The Oilers had him out until March initially, but that was a very conservative timeline. The Oilers admitted a few weeks back that he was ahead of schedule and many thought that a January return would be the target. That would fit in with the news that Connor is skating currently.

The Word:

@EdmontonOilers: #Oilers President & GM Peter Chiarelli says @cmcdavid97 has been skating in Edmonton for the past week as part of his rehab process.

There really wasn’t much detail given by the Oilers outside of what you see above. That said, we can piece things together based off of previous verbal by Peter Chiarelli. This is a GM that usually goes with a conservative timeline, he overestimates things like this and creates misdirection on purpose.

When the Oilers first timeline had McDavid out until March, that was more of keeping the pressure off the kid and getting the message out there that McDavid would not be helping the club for a while.

Keeping him skating under wraps is all about keeping the media and the attention away. There is absolutely no way that Chiarelli announces this if McDavid isn’t somewhat close to returning. I’d wager we are a week or two away from seeing him play, in fact I still believe that his first game back is on New Year’s Eve.

There is a 0% chance that it takes the player more than two and a half weeks to go from skating to a game.

What It Means For Edmonton:

Taylor Hall is an elite offensive player in the NHL, but Connor McDavid is the best player on the Edmonton Oiler roster, I truly believe that. When he returns from injury, the Oilers instantly become a better hockey team. While I still don’t think this is a playoff group, even in the poor Pacific, the Oilers odds increase by the return of this young superstar.

As for lines, Jason Gregor tweeted out the following quote from Todd McLellan, essentially telling us that three scoring lines will not be a thing.

@JasonGregor: “We don’t have a history of doing that (using three centres) so when Connor returns we could look at moving a centre to wing.”

I’d assume that this means the dynamic line of Benoit Pouliot, Connor McDavid and Nail Yakupov gets reunited, as all three of them will be back from injury. That would mean that Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl become a line, something Todd McLellan showcased in practice on Friday and in the game Thursday in Chicago.

The Oilers would have two dynamic lines in their top-six, they would no longer be the one-line team that they are currently. That should help the team generate offense and, by extension, win more hockey games.

It won’t be before the Christmas break, but the Edmonton Oilers are going to be getting Connor McDavid back soon. Skating for the last week is just the next step towards the return of the young superstar.