C Connor McDavid - Erie Otters, OHL (2015 Draft) VI

[Shwaguy*]

Sucks that he's never going to win a Stanley cup.

 

[TeamlessWatcher]

Sorry for your career McDavid. You had a 29/30 chance of having a shot and you lost. Lotteries suck.

 

[JJTT]

Sucks that he's never going to win a Stanley cup.

He can leave as UFA, it's not like he is forced to play in Edmonton for his whole career.

 

[JAS 39 Gripen]

Seeing his interview (seeing ALL NHLers interviews) he looks like hes as bland and vanilla as Crosby and others. You could tell he was thinking "Oh ****, not the friggin Oilers..." but he then went for the boring answer. NHL really needs some colorful personalities. If I were him, I would be depressed.

 

[TeamlessWatcher]

Seeing his interview (seeing ALL NHLers interviews) he looks like hes as bland and vanilla as Crosby and others. You could tell he was thinking "Oh ****, not the friggin Oilers..." but he then went for the boring answer. NHL really needs some colorful personalities. If I were him, I would be depressed.

"Oh man I better go right to work telling the organization that will pay my salary for the next 10 years that they suck and I hate them!"

We all hate this result. It's a terrible result for the league, for nhl fans, for mcdavid, etc.. for everyone except the oilers.

But he would be a ****ing idiot to bash them.

 

[JAS 39 Gripen]

"Oh man I better go right to work telling the organization that will pay my salary for the next 10 years that they suck and I hate them!"

We all hate this result. It's a terrible result for the league, for nhl fans, for mcdavid, etc.. for everyone except the oilers.

But he would be a ****ing idiot to bash them.

He could say something like: "The Oilers? Well, I guess I can try to help them out as good as I can, but Im not very exited to go to the team that dwells in the bottom of the league every year without doing something about there management, no." If he said that, would anyone really blame him?

 

[Armourboy]

"Oh man I better go right to work telling the organization that will pay my salary for the next 10 years that they suck and I hate them!"

We all hate this result. It's a terrible result for the league, for nhl fans, for mcdavid, etc.. for everyone except the oilers.

But he would be a ****ing idiot to bash them.

No he wouldn't, what are they going to do not play him? Yeah right.

He could pretty much say anything he wanted and it wouldn't matter, he knows it, they know it, and the fans know it. Training is why he gave the answer he gave.

Now would it be a bad way to start your career off in a city? Well yeah, would it matter playing wise? Nah.

 

[AwesomePanthers]

Poor McDavid..

 

[stavs*]

Pouliot-RNH-Eberle
Hall-MacDavid-Yakupov


Oh well, I guess I'll live with that.

needs more 1st overall players

 

[Harry Waters]

McDavid is going into a great situation from a player standpoint. He will have Nuge sheltering him and taking on the tough assignments. In the D zone Gordon will get that assignment. He will also likely get Hall as a winger. He will get easy matchups and a star winger to play with. The thing he needs is D that can transition the puck (which presently he won't have). If Oiler can address that than it should be a great situation for him

I appreciate that you didn't get into the whole Oilers-drafting-first-again-problem and try to discuss the player's development on the ice instead. But I don't think that this situation is too great for a developing player.

Do you really think he gets sheltered with Hall playing on his line? I mean you can't just trick opposing teams by announcing your second or third line as your first line and hope they buy it, can you? If the other coach sees McDavid and Hall on a line together, they put their gameplan around them, not around RNH and Yakupov.

If McDavid turns out as good as projected he doesn't need to be sheltered anyway. But if it was so easy sheltering players of this caliber, shouldn't the Pens and Caps have done it, too?

Edit: I agree that on the Oilers it might be a bit easier to give him easier minutes than on other teams. But only so far.

 

[JayTam]

If ANYONE else wins, its fine. Oilers win: McD is not generational.. ONLY @HF

 

[Zaddy]

The hypocrisy in this thread is hilarious.

 

[Claypool]

A generational player is not effected by his environment.

Robert Gordon Orr joined a bottom feeder Bruins team in 1966.

Wayne Gretzky's Oilers were basically an expansion team when they joined the NHL in 1979-80.

Mario's Pens were a poorly managed, bottom feeder.

This thread sums up HF.

Bestowing greatness on a player before his time. And now, just as easily, in a nanosecond, backtracking.

Ridiculous.

McDavid is an elite, special talent. A generational prospect.

He was yesterday and remains same today.

The NHL is different today. Not only do you need quality goaltending to win, you also need elite, puck-moving defensemen that can play big minutes. Also, since there's a salary cap, you need to be able to draft and develop well to retool your contending team as other players leave. The window to win is very small nowadays.

 

[OiledUp]

The NHL is different today. Not only do you need quality goaltending to win, you also need elite, puck-moving defensemen that can play big minutes. Also, since there's a salary cap, you need to be able to draft and develop well to retool your contending team as other players leave. The window to win is very small nowadays.

This and we also don't know exactly how good McDavid will be in the NHL. He projects to be about Crosby level I'd say slightly less than that others think differently, but that's just projections based on his junior career he's played zero pro games, we don't know what he looks like against full grown pro athletes. He was good in the WJC but not dominant, Pavel Zacha was able to at least limit him in the first round of the OHL playoffs, we'll see how he does against Nurse and a loaded Soo team. It's not like he's cruising through the best of his peers. He is highly likely to be a #1C and probably a top ten #1C but he could be anywhere from better than Crosby to a good middle of the road #1C WITHOUT Oilers screwing him up, though that will ofc be the narrative if he doesn't meet expectations, which is fair enough considering how bad we've been this past decade.
He is an amazing talent but let's not take McJesus literally, he's not the Messiah(he's a very naughty boy).

 

[threeVo]

I would have been so happy with McD going to any other of the bottom 5 teams, but ****ing edmonton? Come on thats just terrible. Keep rewarding a franchise for having no direction and terrible management. The longest rebuild in history, and they keep getting a free mulligan year after year.

 

[Steezer99]

A generational player is not effected by his environment.

Robert Gordon Orr joined a bottom feeder Bruins team in 1966.

Wayne Gretzky's Oilers were basically an expansion team when they joined the NHL in 1979-80.

Mario's Pens were a poorly managed, bottom feeder.

This thread sums up HF.

Bestowing greatness on a player before his time. And now, just as easily, in a nanosecond, backtracking.

Ridiculous.

McDavid is an elite, special talent. A generational prospect.

He was yesterday and remains same today.

Exactly if he's really that good he will be fine

 

[tiger_80]

Yes. A generational player should be immune to playing for a bad team.

Yes, a true generational player will turn the team around. it's not like he will have nothing to work with. Edmonton's forward core is already set and will only get better as younger players finish developing (Hall, RNH, Eberle, Yakupov, Pouliot, Lander, Purcell, Draisaitl--that's potentially more firepower than any team in the league can muster). The defence does not look too bad going forward either with Klefbom, Nurse and Marincin. They have assets to add a d-man or two this summer (Pittsburg 1st, two 2nd rounders, 1st round pick next year, B level prospects, maybe J.Schultz or Marincin).

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Oilers better make some serious changes with the team before mcdavid puts on a jersey. He can't use this mess of a team as mentors. And please have Oil management make some trades for defence men and goalies or else all these young forwards will continue to flop and that includes mcdavid. They should almost use Hall and Yak as trade bait now and somewhat rebuild this rebuild of there's that has backfired. Get bigger, somehow get some veterans, get better dmen and get goalies. I was reading posts on the Edmonton Oilers section of the site and they are very excited as the should be, but as long as they don't address the dmen and goalie situation and bigger/better veterans, they will never be a threat.

 

[doubledown99]

I appreciate that you didn't get into the whole Oilers-drafting-first-again-problem and try to discuss the player's development on the ice instead. But I don't think that this situation is too great for a developing player.

Do you really think he gets sheltered with Hall playing on his line? I mean you can't just trick opposing teams by announcing your second or third line as your first line and hope they buy it, can you? If the other coach sees McDavid and Hall on a line together, they put their gameplan around them, not around RNH and Yakupov.

If McDavid turns out as good as projected he doesn't need to be sheltered anyway. But if it was so easy sheltering players of this caliber, shouldn't the Pens and Caps have done it, too?

Edit: I agree that on the Oilers it might be a bit easier to give him easier minutes than on other teams. But only so far.

Some of what say is true but yes you can shelter him. He won't get many starts in the d-zone. Those will go to Gordon and Nuge. As for d matchups, at home you can dictate that somewhat. On the road much harder. But opposing coaches may want to matchup against the Pouliot-Nuge-Eberle line anyways as that line was very dangerous this year going up against the toughest matchups. If you matchup against McDavid-Hall then Nuges line will kill you. I guess we'll see what happens next year

 

[doubledown99]

Wow some of you have shown how clueless you really are. Some of these posts are classic. You should be embarrassed with writing it. And based on the content I'd say some of you are not even knowledgeable enough to talk about hockey let alone post about it for others to see your ridiculousness. If events about the sport bring you this much disappointment/anger/frustration maybe you have all your priorities wrong? How are you going to be successful in life when something as meaningless as sports can cause you this level of resentment?

Here is some words about success that may help some of you from one of the top success coaches alive(Robin Sharma):

--hard work profoundly makes a difference
--gritty persistence vastly raises your chances
--optimism amid adversity grows your results
--treating people with respect yields blessings

 

[McDrai]

As for McDavid not reaching his potential in Edmonton, I can see the concern, but to be honest Hall and Nuge are doing fine (Hall top 10 forward last season; Nuge in top 30 centers in the league). It's the team that you have to build around the core players though which is what Oilers management has failed at miserably over the last number of years. Can they finally build a team around these core players? I sure hope so or else this would be such a waste of high end talent. Anyways, Cheers guys and remember not to take out your frustrations on Oilers fans. They've been through **** for almost the last decade due to incompetent upper management. If anything, the hatred should be directed towards them (Lowe, MacT, Katz)!

 

[tony d]

No and it's nothing to do with Edmonton. The fact is I really think this guy is over-hyped. It's just my opinion but people are saying, before he plays in the NHL, about how he's going to be the next big thing in the NHL. I think we should wait until he plays a few NHL games before we call him a generational player.

 

[BloFan4Life]

He will never have the team success to be considered generational. Edmonton has so many other problems that keep players away.

 

[Shoalzie]

If he's as good as he's made out to be...the Oilers will never be this bad again while he's there. Generational talents need to win, not just put up numbers.

 

[Blues88]

Yes. A generational player should be immune to playing for a bad team.

I'd agree, except this is beyond a bad team. This is a dysfunctional front office. A big aspect of development has to do with what staff is in place and what priorities they instill in a player.

In that sense, you have 3 former first overall picks to use as source material, and the conclusions aren't positive. I don't believe they'll ruin McDavid or have ruined any of there other high picks, but does anyone believe these players have been in a good environment to develop and succeed thus far?