Connor Andrew McDavid (born January 13, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre and captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Selected first overall by the Oilers in the 2015 NHL entry draft, McDavid is widely considered one of the best players of all time.
McDavid spent his childhood playing ice hockey against older children. Coached by his father, McDavid won four Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships with the York Simcoe Express, but he left the team in 2011 to join the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL). There, McDavid was named the GTHL Player of the Year and the winner of the Tim Adams Memorial Trophy. He was granted exceptional player status in 2012 by Hockey Canada, which allowed him to begin playing junior ice hockey at the age of 15. The Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) selected him first overall in that year's draft, and he played there until 2015. McDavid's OHL career concluded with a 2014–15 season in which he recorded 120 points and received a number of OHL and Canadian Hockey League (CHL) awards, including the Red Tilson Trophy, Wayne Gretzky 99 Award, and CHL Player of the Year awards. McDavid also represented Canada at several international competitions during this time, winning gold medals at the 2013 World U18 Championships and 2015 World Junior Championships.
After finishing his junior hockey career, McDavid joined the Oilers for their 2015–16 season. Despite missing three months of his rookie season due to a fractured clavicle, he was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team and was a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy. The following year, the Oilers appointed 19-year-old McDavid the youngest captain in NHL history. Recording 100 points during the 2016–17 season, at the age of 20, McDavid became the second youngest player to win the Art Ross Trophy for the leading scorer in the NHL. He was also awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and was selected to the NHL First All-Star Team. Although the Oilers missed the Stanley Cup playoffs during the next two seasons, McDavid scored 41 goals in consecutive years. He injured his knee in the final game of the 2018–19 season but underwent a nonsurgical rehabilitation process that allowed him to return in time for the start of the 2019–20 season. In 2020–21, despite the COVID-19 pandemic shortening the NHL season to only 56 games, McDavid recorded 100 points for the fourth time in his career. In 2023–24, McDavid captained the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final, their first since 2006. McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, becoming only the sixth player, second skater, and first since Jean-Sébastien Giguère in 2003, to win the award despite not winning the Stanley Cup.
He is a four-time NHL First Team All-Star, a six-time recipient of the Art Ross Trophy, a five-time winner of the Ted Lindsay Award, a three-time recipient of the Hart Memorial Trophy, and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy winner for 2022–23 as the league's leading goal-scorer. His opponents have praised his speed on the ice, and McDavid has won Fastest Skater at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition four times. He is one of only two players – after fellow Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky in 1982 – to unanimously win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player.
Contents
Early life
McDavid was born on January 13, 1997, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. His mother, Kelly, played one year of recreational ice hockey as a child before turning her attention towards skiing, while his father, Brian, was a high school ice hockey player and dedicated Boston Bruins fan. McDavid began playing hockey around the age of three, practicing on rollerblades in the family basement. He began playing organized youth hockey the next year, as his parents lied about his age to allow him to play with five-year-olds. When he was six, the local youth hockey association in his hometown of Newmarket forbade McDavid to play against older children, and his parents, believing that he would be "bored out of his mind" in house league hockey, enrolled him in an Aurora, Ontario, hockey program. From there, he won four Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships with the York Simcoe Express, a team coached by his father. In 2009, McDavid participated in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with his York Simcoe team, which also featured future professional ice hockey player Sam Bennett.
In 2011, McDavid left the Express for the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), the team that he and his father had defeated in the previous year's Ontario Hockey Federation championship. The decision came at a social cost, as he lost many of the friends that he had made with York Simcoe. He won the GTHL Player of the Year Award in 2012 after scoring 33 goals and recording 39 assists in 33 regular season games. McDavid added another 19 points (11 goals and eight assists) in seven OHL Cup games, the most by any player since Sam Gagner recorded 17 points in five games during the 2005 tournament. Although he received the Tim Adams Memorial Trophy as the tournament MVP, McDavid's team was defeated 2–1 in the OHL Cup final by the Mississauga Rebels.
Playing career
Junior
Although McDavid contemplated playing NCAA Division I hockey, he decided to enter the junior ice hockey circuit as an adolescent rather than waiting to begin a college career. McDavid applied for exceptional player status through Hockey Canada, and after passing through evaluations of his athleticism, academics, and maturity, he was allowed to enter the junior hockey draft at the age of 15 rather than 16. He was only the third Ontario Hockey League (OHL) player to be granted such an exception, following John Tavares in 2005 and Aaron Ekblad in 2011. On April 7, 2012, the Erie Otters selected McDavid first overall in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection, and he signed with the team that June. As the first overall selection in that year's OHL draft, McDavid was the recipient of the 2012 Jack Ferguson Award.
McDavid joined the Otters for the 2012–13 season, where he scored his first OHL goal on September 21, in an 8–2 loss to the London Knights. That October, he was named the OHL Rookie of the Month after recording at least one point in all 10 games he played. He took home the award again in November with a rookie-leading 17 points in 13 games. That same month, McDavid became the youngest OHL player ever to participate in the Subway Super Series. In January and February, the physical toll of moving from minor to junior hockey, as well as frustration playing for the last-place Otters, limited McDavid's effectiveness on the ice, and his scoring began to slow.
On March 10, 2013, despite the Otters falling 6–4 to the Owen Sound Attack, McDavid picked up his 37th assist of the season, setting a franchise record for rookie assists. It was also his 62nd point of the season, tying with Tim Connolly for the most rookie points in Otters history. He recorded four more points in the regular season, breaking Connolly's record. McDavid finished his rookie season with 25 goals and 41 assists in 63 regular season games, second in scoring to Nikolay Goldobin among all OHL rookies. In addition to being named to the OHL First All-Rookie Team, McDavid took home the 2013 Emms Family Award for OHL rookie of the year. He was also a finalist for CHL Rookie of the Year, a title which went to Valentin Zykov of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
In contrast to their poor finish during the previous season, the Otters opened the 2013–14 season with 25 points in their first 15 games, including a 10-game winning streak. During this stretch, McDavid personally had five goals and 28 points, three points behind OHL leader and teammate Connor Brown. He was named the OHL Player of the Month in October and received another Subway Super Series selection, appearing as the youngest player in the tournament for the second year in a row. After experiencing two consecutive four-point outings in an 11–2 win against the Plymouth Whalers and 6–1 victory over the Windsor Spitfires in March, McDavid was named both the OHL and CHL Player of the Week. Later that week, his 25th goal of the season helped the Otters to reach 100 points as a team for the first time since 2001. He finished the regular season fourth in the OHL with 99 points (28 goals and 71 assists) in 56 games. His 20 penalty minutes, meanwhile, were the lowest among the top 12 scorers in the league, and McDavid was awarded the William Hanley Trophy for the most sportsmanlike player in the OHL. With a 92 per cent average at [[McDowell High School (Pennsylvania)
Professional (2015–present)
The Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL), who were coming off of a 24–44–14 season, selected McDavid first overall in the 2015 NHL entry draft. On July 3, 2015, he signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the team; the total deal was worth $11.3 million, including up to $3.775 million annually in bonus incentives. He made his NHL debut on October 9, 2015, nearly scoring twice but stopped by Brian Elliott both times in a 3–1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. His first goal came five days later in his third NHL game, when McDavid scored on Kari Lehtonen in the second period of a 4–2 loss to the Dallas Stars. On November 3, in his 13th NHL game, McDavid suffered a fractured left clavicle after a collision into the boards with Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto of the Philadelphia Flyers. At the time of the injury, he had five goals and 12 points through those 13 games. He missed a total of 37 games with the injury, by which point the Oilers had fallen well out of playoff contention, but returned on February 3 with a goal and two assists in Edmonton's 5–1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. On February 11, while facing his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, McDavid was involved in all five of the Oilers' points: in addition to scoring twice, he also had assists on every part of Jordan Eberle's hat trick. That single-game performance helped boost McDavid to tenth overall in NHL rookie scoring at that point, despite playing in only his 19th game of the 2015–16 season. Despite appearing in only 45 games due to injury, McDavid finished his rookie season with 16 goals and 32 assists, fourth in rookie scoring. He was third place in Calder Memorial Trophy voting, behind Shayne Gostisbehere of the Philadelphia Flyers and winner Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks, and all three players were named to the 2015–16 NHL All-Rookie Team.
On October 5, 2016, the Oilers named McDavid their captain for the 2016–17 season. At 19 years and 266 days old, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history, unseating Gabriel Landeskog, who was 20 days older when he became captain of the Colorado Avalanche in September 2012. After a 10-game goal drought early in the season, McDavid recorded his first NHL hat-trick on November 19 in a 5–2 victory over the Dallas Stars. The following month, on December 18, 2016, he scored his first shootout goal against Ben Bishop to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3–2. With two assists against the New Jersey Devils on January 13, McDavid became the first player to reach 50 points during the 2016–17 season. Five days later, he recorded his 100th NHL point with an assist on Zack Kassian's goal against the Florida Panthers. He reached the milestone in only 92 games, following Wayne Gretzky (61 games) and Blair MacDonald (85) as the third-fastest Oiler to reach 100 career points.
International play
Junior
McDavid's international ice hockey career began with the 2013 World U-17 Hockey Challenge, where he led the sixth-place Team Ontario with nine points in five games, including two goals and an assist in their 7–6 tournament-ending loss to Team Pacific. Despite his team's disappointing performance, McDavid was named to the tournament all-star team. The next year, a 16-year-old McDavid was the youngest player in the 2013 World U18 Championships. Playing for the Canada men's national under-18 ice hockey team, he skated on a line with Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett, recording two goals and two assists in Canada's 4–1 opening-round win over Slovakia. He led the tournament in scoring with eight goals and 14 assists, including a hat-trick during Canada's 6–0 quarterfinal win over the Czech Republic. Canada defeated the United States team 3–2 in the gold medal match, breaking United States' four-year championship streak, and McDavid was named both the Best Forward and Tournament MVP after the win.
In 2014, McDavid became the sixth 16-year-old in history to join the Canadian junior team for that year's World Junior Championships. Although McDavid recorded a goal and three assists in the tournament, he went pointless in the last three games and spent most of the bronze medal match, in which Canada fell 2–1 to Russia, on the bench. He rejoined the team for the 2015 World Junior Championships, serving as an alternate captain and as the only 17-year-old on a team that was otherwise 19 years of age. Canada took the gold medal in the tournament, defeating Russia 5–4 in the championship match, and McDavid's 11 points (three goals and eight assists) tied Sam Reinhart and Nic Petan for first in the tournament. He was named to the media all-star team at the end of the championships.
Senior
McDavid first joined the Canadian senior team for the 2016 World Championship. Although he had eight assists in the tournament, McDavid did not score a goal until the gold-medal match against Finland, who the Canadians shut out 2–0 to win the tournament. McDavid's was the only goal of the game until the final second, when Matt Duchene scored in the opposition's empty net. That same year, McDavid was named captain of Team North America, a team of Canadian and American players aged 23 or under, at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Centring a line with Auston Matthews and Mark Scheifele, McDavid had three assists in six games during the pre-tournament and round robin stages of the World Cup. Team North America was eliminated after the round-robin portion of the tournament, with Russia winning the tiebreaker.
Two years later, McDavid was named captain of Canada at the 2018 World Championship, where he recorded five goals and 13 points through the opening rounds of the tournament. With a 4–1 loss to the United States team in the bronze medal game, Canada finished the World Championship without a medal for the first time since 2014. McDavid, who was joined by Oilers teammates Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse, finished the tournament third in scoring with five goals and 17 points in 10 games. McDavid intended to play for Canada again at the 2019 World Championship, but suffered a leg injury at the end of the NHL season that kept him from participating.
McDavid was one of the first three players named to the Canadian roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics, joining Sidney Crosby and Alex Pietrangelo. However, in December 2021, the NHL declared that no players would be allowed to participate in the Winter Olympics, citing COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the league. McDavid, who had already missed a chance to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics due to financial concerns from the NHL, was upset with the league's decision, saying, "It's always been a dream of mine to play at the Olympics since I was a little kid. So to have that kind of squashed as we were getting close was disappointing."
McDavid was one of the first six players named to Canada's roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off, and was later named alternate captain. Recording three goals, including the game- and tournament-winning goal in the final matchup against the United States, and five points in four games, he finished the tournament second in scoring. Canada's victory marked McDavid's first international gold medal since 2016, and his first in a senior-level "best on best" tournament. For his performance in the event final, he was named Player of the Game.
Player profile
Nicknamed "McJesus", McDavid is considered by fellow players, fans, and sportswriters to be one of the best players in the modern era of the NHL, with frequent comparisons to elite offensive players such as Sidney Crosby. Responding to a 2017 survey from the Associated Press, defenceman Seth Jones described McDavid as "what Crosby was when he was 20", while Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said that McDavid "just skates and he stick handles and it's something I've never seen before as a goalie". Between 2016 and 2021, McDavid ranked first in TSN Hockey's preseason fan poll of the top 50 players in the NHL. The NHLPA also voted McDavid the best forward in the league in both 2019 and 2020. In 2021, McDavid joined Gretzky as the only players to unanimously win the Hart Memorial Trophy, as voted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.
Through his first five seasons in the NHL, McDavid's 1.34 points per game have been on par with Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. When asked by ESPN in 2016 what made McDavid such a strong player, several, including Auston Matthews, Ryan Getzlaf, Joe Thornton, and Brendan Gallagher, mentioned his speed on the ice. John Tavares praised McDavid's adaptability, while defenceman Cam Fowler said, "I don't think there's a specific way to shut him down." In 2021, Gretzky praised McDavid's increased maturity and physicality compared to previous seasons, saying, "His body language is that he doesn't want to lose, and it's infectious through the hockey club." Despite the praise for the offensive aspects of his game, McDavid has received criticism from sports journalists for his defensive elements, particularly his high rate of turning over the puck to his opponents while in the Oilers' defensive zone.
Personal life
McDavid met his wife, interior designer Lauren Kyle, in 2016 after they were set up on a blind date by Kyle's cousin and her cousin's then-boyfriend Luke Gazdic, who was McDavid's teammate at the time. The pair live with their dog, a miniature Bernedoodle named Lenard, and own a house together in Edmonton. After photos of the house were featured in EDify magazine in 2020 and video tour was recorded in 2021 for Architectural Digest, the minimalist design and the grim view of the Edmonton River Valley outside became an Internet meme.
McDavid and Kyle became engaged on June 22, 2023, and got married on July 27, 2024, in Muskoka, Ontario. The wedding was featured in Vogue Australia. Edmonton Oilers teammates Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse were two of his groomsmen. Draisaitl's wife, Canadian actress Celeste Desjardins, has been Kyle's best friend since they were in high school together in Sudbury, Ontario; Kyle had originally set them up in 2018, and they married in 2025.
As a sports fan in Ontario, McDavid was a dedicated childhood fan of Mats Sundin and the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team. He described his childhood bedroom as "pretty embarrassing" for its volume of Maple Leafs memorabilia. In 2023, he stated that he "likes watching players more than teams", and named the Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins as the two teams he most enjoys watching for that reason. Outside of hockey, he supports the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Blue Jays game in 2016.
On June 21, 2017, Electronic Arts revealed that McDavid would be the cover athlete for NHL 18, their annual installment of the NHL video game series. Additionally, McDavid's unique skating style inspired the Real Player Motion technology used in NHL 19, in which player size and other attributes affect their skating speed and power. In 2022, McDavid was one of several Canadian athletes to appear on boxes of Cheerios cereal as part of their "Be the Cheer" promotion, in which customers could write personalized messages to athletes competing at the Olympic Games. That same year, McDavid became the first active professional athlete to serve as a brand ambassador for sports betting company BetMGM.
McDavid has stated, and his wife has further confirmed in podcast interviews, that he has a long-time phobia of ketchup.
Philanthropy
McDavid is involved in charitable efforts with Edmonton's Indigenous community and has raised $85,000 to help Indigenous children play sports. He is also involved in a shuttle program to help sick kids.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
Career statistics derived from Elite Prospects.
Bold indicates led league.Bold italics indicates NHL record.
All-Star Games
All statistics are taken from NHL.com.
Records
GTHL U16 AAA
Most points in a season (209, in 2011–12)
Most assists in a season (130, in 2011–12)
OHL
Most individual awards given to any OHL player (5)
NHL
Youngest captain in NHL history (19 years, 266 days at time of appointment)
Most points on consecutive goals to begin an NHL season (9, in 2018–19 season)
Second unanimous MVP in NHL history (2020–21 season, first was Wayne Gretzky)
Most assists in one playoff year (34, 2024 NHL playoffs)
Only player to record back-to-back 4-point or more games in the Stanley Cup Final (2024 Stanley Cup Final)
Most points over a two-game stretch in the Stanley Cup Final (8, 2024 Stanley Cup Final)
Most Ted Lindsay awards (5, tied with Gretzky)
Most assists in a game (6, tied with 3 others)
Most assists in a season (100, in 2023–24, tied with Nikita Kucherov)
Most points in a season (153, in 2022–23)
Most power-play points in a season (71, in 2022-23)
Highest season points per game average (1.88, in 2020–21)
Highest career points per game average (1.54)
Most assists in a postseason game (5)
Most points in a postseason (42, in 2023–24)
Highest postseason points per game average (2.06, in 2021–22)
Edmonton Oilers
Most assists in a period (4, tied with 4 others)
Most points in a game by a rookie (5, tied with 2 others)
Most power-play goals in a game (3, tied with 3 others)
Most power-play points in a season (75, in 2022–23)
Most 20-goal seasons (10, tied with 4 others)
Most consecutive 20-goal seasons (10, tied with 4 others)
Most career game-winning goals (76)
Most career overtime assists (33)
Most career power-play assists (318)
Most 3-assist games in one playoff year (5, tied with Wayne Gretzky)
Most career overtime points (50)
Most 100-point seasons (9, tied with Gretzky)
Longest tenured captain (10 seasons, from 2016–17 to 2025–26)
3-on-3 All-Star Games
Most assists in one game (4, tied with Tyler Bertuzzi)
Most career assists for one division (11, Pacific Division)
Most career assists (13)
Most career points (17, tied with Sidney Crosby)
Most career games played (11)
Most years representing one NHL team (7, Edmonton Oilers)
Most years representing one division (6, Pacific Division)
Most career appearances (7)
Olympics
Most points by an NHL player through the first two games of a tournament (6, in 2026)
First NHL player to record three consecutive three-point games
Most consecutive multi-point games by an NHL player (5, in 2026)
Most points in a single tournament featuring NHL players (13, in 2026)
Most assists in a single tournament featuring NHL players (11, in 2026)