Oilers’ McDavid asks for more pre-season reps: ‘That’s why he’s our leader’

EDMONTON — In a National Hockey League pre-season that has seen star players suffer catastrophic injuries — and many others wait until the last possible moment to declare themselves ready for a game that doesn’t count in the standings — Connor McDavid wants more ice time, not less.

The Edmonton Oilers captain approached head coach Kris Knoblauch and requested to play Monday against Vancouver, his third game of the pre-season.

It was a game he was not scheduled to play, and although things can change, Sportsnet has learned that McDavid informed Knoblauch over this past weekend that he’d like to play out the rest of the pre-season schedule: Monday’s shootout win over the Canucks, Wednesday in Seattle and Friday in Vancouver.

That’ll be five of eight games for McDavid, if he indeed plays them all.

“That’s why he’s our leader. He leads by example,” said veteran Corey Perry. “Everybody knows he’s not the loudest guy in the room. But those little things, they help.

“It just shows you the love for this game he has, where he wants to be, and how he feels his game is right now to get him ready for Game 1. You can see starting to ramp it up. He’s getting going.”

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Out in Vancouver, where the Oilers close out their pre-season on Friday, J.T. Miller has not played a game and Quinn Hughes has suited up for one. In a six-game Canucks schedule, Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk won’t play more than two games — assuming they dress against Edmonton on Friday.

“I wanted to play tonight,” McDavid said after Monday’s 3-2 win, where he had a pair of assists and 21:14 of ice time. “I just wanted to get into a little bit of rhythm. It’s tough to get in a rhythm when you play one, sit out a week, and play another.”

When word of McDavid’s ask filtered up to new general manager Stan Bowman, it took him back to his former life as the GM of the Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks.

“Sometimes with the top players, they want to get their game to the level that they want to be at,” he said. “Kaner or Johnny (Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews), they just want to be at their best to start the season. If they needed more reps, then…

“I’m not shocked by that.”

In a pre-season where Drew Doughty, Patrik Laine and a few others have either been severely injured, or flirted with injury, did Bowman consider having the injury chat with McDavid?

“Naw,” he said. ““I think you can overthink that one. Guys can get hurt in practice.

“If anyone gets hurt, then it’s a bad outcome. But if you approach things with that mindset, then you’re always going to be just waiting ’til Game 1 to play.”

When the best player in the world is putting in some extra work, you can imagine how that filters down through the organization.

On a team that has vowed to get off to a better start this season than last, this is being seen as a statement inside the dressing room.

“Absolutely,” Perry said. “I mean, 2-9-1 (last year), it’s not ideal. He’s expressed that. That’s why he wants to start ramping up early.”

It’s been a long road to being an effective captain for McDavid, who was handed the ‘C’ at age 19, still the youngest captain in NHL history. He didn’t even know then how to prepare himself for an NHL season as a teenager, let alone how to set an example for teammates to follow.

Last season, after a premature exit to Vegas in the 2023 playoffs, a 26-year-old McDavid likely made a mistake in calling for full attendance at Captain’s Skates, which began promptly on the Tuesday following the Labour Day weekend. The camp lasted too long, players got injured, and the Oilers opened their season with two wins in 12 games.

This off-season has provided an entirely different arc, with a short summer followed by a slumberous pre-season slate that almost feels like an entirely different sport from the intensity of the games this team was playing against Florida only three months before.

This declaration by McDavid, with three games left, tells everyone that it’s time to get ready. Time to move on from last year.

“Tonight was my focus was to get a little bit more engaged, get into some more battles,” he said after a game in which he steamrolled young Jonathan Lekkerimaki. “That was kind of my focus, not so much swinging (big circles), I guess.”

“The best thing a captain or leader can do is to be really good themselves,” reasoned Bowman. “If they worry too much about the group, start focusing on how they’re going to help inspire other players to be good … they just need to play their best.

“Without even asking him, I think he’s just saying, ‘I want to be at my best, and this is what I think I need to be there.’ And by extension, then players see that he’s at his best, and it helps the team.”

In short, we would label this request ‘leading by example.’

“That’s exactly what it is,” Perry said.

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