Oilers’ Connor McDavid leaves game with lower-body injury

During the team’s game on Monday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Edmonton Oilers announced that captain Connor McDavid would not return to the game after suffering an apparent lower-body injury.

Connor McDavid (lower body) will not return for the #Oilers tonight.

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 28, 2024

While the team has yet to disclose what McDavid injured, the superstar center took a fall while skating the puck into the offensive zone on the opening shift of the game. He inadvertently hit the sideboards before sliding into the corner. When skating off the ice, it looked as if McDavid was favoring his left leg.

The shift lasted 37 seconds, and he didn’t return after that.

EDM CBJ G10. October 27, 2024. Connor McDavid falls on first shift, leaves game after. 🎥: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/KHNv7LhUOh

— Nation Network Media (@NationNMedia) October 28, 2024

Whatever McDavid hurt, it was severe enough to take him out of the game so early rather than wait and see if resting during the first intermission would give him time to heal up and re-enter the contest.

So far in the 2024-25 season, McDavid has scored three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 10 games, averaging over 22 minutes per game.

Lower-body injuries are nothing new to the Newmarket, Ontario native. McDavid hurt his knee in the final game of the 2018-19 season, though he was able to make it back in time for the start of the following season. He also missed three games last April with a lower-body injury. An upper-body injury kept McDavid out of the lineup for two games last October as well.

McDavid infamously suffered a fractured collarbone two months into his rookie season, which kept him off the ice for almost three months.

In the first nine years of his NHL career, the 27-year-old won the Art Ross Trophy five times, winning the Rocket Richard Trophy after scoring 64 goals in 2022-23. He is a three-time Hart Trophy winner as league MVP and a four-time Ted Lindsay Award winner.

In 654 games, McDavid has scored 338 goals and 654 assists for 992 points, including 117 points in 74 playoff games. Last spring, as the Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Final, he notched 42 points in 25 games, earning the Conn Smythe Trophy.