Bad report surfaces in Connor McDavid’s recovery

Earlier this week, it was announced that Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid would miss two to three weeks due to an ankle injury. The superstar got injured in his team’s 6-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. On his first shift, he was forced to leave the ice after he was tripped and sent awkwardly into the boards. McDavid appeared to jam his left skate hard into the lower portion of the side boards, and leave the game, never to return.

He flew back on Tuesday from Nashville, and the update on his recovery timeline was later confirmed by the team.

Fans were relieved that McDavid is going to miss less time than first feared, however on Thursday, a concerning update came from the Edmonton Journal, in which David Staples reported that McDavid had already jumped and skated on the ice.
That sounds like good news no?

Well, here is how Staples explains, and I have to say I’m afraid he could be right. The Oilers have been struggling offensively since the sluggish start of their 2024-25 season. While no one is saying that Edmonton is pushing the panic button, Staples fears that the team and the captain himself could speed up his recovery and make the mistake of bringing him back when McDavid is not a 100 percent. He took a segment of Ray Ferraro on the Ray & Dregs podcast to prove his point:

“The one thing, just to keep an eye on, when they (Edmonton) lose and they look like they’re susceptible to speed. That’s something to be a little bit concerned with is. They definitely did get slower over the off season. And at some point, you’d think they might have to address that.”

In the meantime, Staples wants to remain as he puts it an Oilers’ optimist and believes that there can be some “positive about what may come with McDavid being out.”

Later on Insider Trading on TSN, Pierre LeBrun also spoke about McDavid skating on Thursday and added:

“On Thursday morning, Connor McDavid did put on the skates just to test things out with that ankle injury. I had a chance to speak to his agent, Judd Moldaver from Wasserman. He basically said, ‘look, things are pretty encouraging here.’ I mean, there was some real concern, obviously, when McDavid left the game earlier this week, flew home, went through the battery of tests he did. And you get that two-to-three week timeline. But you know, at this point they’re going to have to take things day-by-day, make sure he has no setbacks. But this is a player that’s come back ahead of schedule before and [I] won’t offer any predictions at this point - but certainly all signs are pointing to him getting up and running here again as soon as possible.”

The Oilers got the 5-1 win over the Predators in Nashville later in the night with Leon Draisaitl recording three points and stepping up during McDavid’s absence.