Connor McDavid has opened the season with numbers rarely seen in the NHL, but the Edmonton Oilers captain is measuring the start by more than his place atop the scoring race. Edmonton takes a 6-1-1 record into Tuesday’s home game against the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Place, with McDavid carrying a season-opening eight-game point streak.
The 29-year-old center has six goals and 17 assists for an NHL-leading 23 points. He has recorded two five-point nights already, giving him 16 such games in his career, and his 23 points through eight outings mark the strongest start by an NHL player since Mario Lemieux posted 27 for Pittsburgh in 1995-96.
McDavid, though, said the Oilers’ overall game remains the priority.
“I care more about how the game looks overall, and how it feels out there,” McDavid said. “It’s been good at times, and there’s been times where I feel like I can do more and everyone can do more. That’s more important.”
Oilers leaning on a loaded top unit
Edmonton coach Mike Babcock has kept McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together at even strength while the club deals with injuries among its forward group. The two natural centers have been paired in key moments in previous seasons, but they have remained together consistently through the first eight games.
Vasily Podkolzin has completed the line and has made an immediate impact, sitting second among Edmonton forwards with six goals and eight assists for 14 points. McDavid also pointed to the work of defensemen Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard behind the attack.
“To be able to have a stretch of games playing together — who knows what happens moving forward — but playing together has been so much fun,” McDavid said of skating with Draisaitl. “Everybody knows where each other is, everybody has been reading off each other, playing fast, and everybody can make a play.”
Babcock said the arrangement was a response to the roster available to him, not necessarily a permanent lineup decision.
“When we get other people back, that doesn’t mean they’re playing together,” Babcock said. “We’re in a spot that we felt we really needed to push with one group and survive with the rest.”
The coach said Podkolzin brings a useful dimension to the line, similar to the support Zach Hyman can provide alongside Edmonton’s elite centers.
Health and details behind the production
McDavid’s summer also gave him time to recover from the foot injury he suffered during Edmonton’s first-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks. The Oilers were eliminated in six games, their earliest postseason departure since Winnipeg swept them in 2020-21.
He credited the club’s broader improvement as a major reason for his production, noting that Edmonton’s best work is not always reflected in individual scoring totals.
“I think the team’s just playing well,” McDavid said. “Anytime the team plays well, you’re going to have guys have success. It’s not necessarily on the stat sheet for everybody, but everybody is playing really well, doing things detailed, structured, playing hard.”
Babcock’s preferred number is not McDavid’s 23 points. It is the captain’s plus-19 rating, which the coach sees as evidence of Edmonton controlling games at five-on-five.
“You’re playing against good people and you’re doing things, obviously 5-on-5, to dominate the game,” Babcock said.
Babcock, who won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2007-08 and Olympic gold with Canada in 2010 and 2014, said McDavid’s daily habits have stood out as much as his skill.
“He’s a real good player, but what he is is a better person, a better man,” Babcock said. “He drives his teammates not by what he says. Leadership isn’t what you say; it’s what you do. It’s what you model each and every day, and he does it right.”
Next puck drop
The Oilers host Minnesota on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. Edmonton will look to extend its six-game run of victories within an 8-game start that has produced seven standings points in its past eight outings.
Babcock said the early results have not changed the day-to-day approach.
“We’re building our game; we’re early in it,” he said. “I try not to get too excited and I try not to get too down. I just try to get ready for the next day.”
