McDavid’s legacy under the microscope as Oilers renew Stanley Cup quest

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As part of his playoff tune-up, Connor McDavid put three goals past the Sharks last Saturday night.

Afterward, the spiffy new teenage version of McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, came out to chant his legend.

“He’s the best player in the league,” Celebrini said. “It’s simple as that. You’ve seen it his whole career.” McDavid was drafted a couple of weeks after Celebrini’s ninth birthday. Which parts was he seeing?

I get that that this kid is prodigious, but I have a hard time believing he’s been closely observing McDavid’s “whole career.” And does this valedictory way of speaking not seem a little too close to past tense?

Without meaning to do so, Celebrini’s dancing around what everybody’s starting to think – sure, McDavid’s the greatest, absolutely no doubt about it. But is he, though?

A couple, three of seasons ago, you’d have circled 2025-26 as the calendar year most likely to put McDavid on hockey’s Mount Rushmore. The Oilers were beginning to peak. They’d book-ended McDavid with high-end talent. Goalie problem abated, if not solved.

Without anyone noticing, everyone who used to work for the Oilers now worked for McDavid personally. Even the owner. Surrounded by support staff, the sport’s maestro was freed from administrative concerns and could compose his masterpiece. First, a Stanley Cup, then an Olympic gold. The other way around would be fine, too.

In McDavid’s defence, he’s been trying. The best evidence for his case as a top-tier all-timer is that he always shows up. He’s never had a bad playoffs, or a bad tournament, or even a bad run.

But by the unfair standard he has set for himself, the past year has been a low-key disaster. The sort where you call your dad in a panic, but not 911.

First, it was Edmonton. Then Team Canada. And now, maybe Edmonton again. It’s hard to say what’s worse – missing the target altogether, or repeatedly nicking the bullseye. The former seems like bad luck; the latter suggests a curse.

Take his natural ability out of it. McDavid is becoming the guy who cannot convince colleagues to let him piggyback them over the finish line. All they have to do is go limp, but they refuse. Someone’s always trying to help and getting in the way.

Whatever that spooky directional sense is that convinces others to follow unquestioningly, they don’t teach it. Sidney Crosby has it. Brad Marchand has it. McDavid does not. Or not convincingly.

You can see the toll that expectation is taking on him. Just look at him. McDavid is ageing like a sane U.S. president. Somehow, the NHL has turned its greatest contemporary practitioner into a tragic figure. I don’t care who wins (since by virtue of their jobs, they all do, all the time), but even I’m starting to feel sorry for this guy.

At the outset of the year just past, McDavid’s goals may have been dynastic. If he could get the Oilers in a line behind him, they might dominate for the foreseeable future. He must have had Gretzky and Messier in his thoughts, if not yet his sights.

Now, everything’s being pared back. McDavid starts a new two-year deal next season. There’s no wedding vow that goes, ‘… in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until a rising salary cap do us part’, and no star signs for two years intending to stay. Edmonton is on McDavid’s clock.

So the question for them this year’s post-season — can the Oilers help McDavid help them?

The one hopeful thing about this is how hopeless it’s starting to look. During their last two runs to the Stanley Cup final, you could see ahead of time how it would be done. Not now. Each series will feature unstoppable forces against one easily movable object. It starts on Monday, in Edmonton, against Anaheim.

Some teams are able park the bus come playoff time. The Oilers can’t get an ironing board open in front of the net.

So if this is going to happen, it’ll have to be all McDavid all the time. How’s his voice? Because this one may require nightly screaming sessions, instead of the old just-when-it-matters-in-the-final breakouts.

But if McDavid does it with this crew of stumblebums and guys who need glasses but refuse to get them, then all-timer is back on the table.

If the Oilers win this year, regardless of his statistics, McDavid is the Patrick Roy of that victory. It takes a team to win, but, you know. Not always. Sometimes just having the right guy in the line-up frees others to access their inner winner.

McDavid could play another 10 years, but the window in which he can establish his top-five-ever credentials is closing fast. It’s not a function of ability. It’s how he’s perceived. Was he unquestionably the guy? Or was he one of the guys?

His immediate problem is team defence. His near-to-medium term problem is Celebrini. How long until people are saying about that kid what they used to say about McDavid? I’m going to guess it’s shortly after the San Jose Sharks are going deeper in the playoffs than the Oilers. So, next year?

If it doesn’t work out in Edmonton, McDavid can move, but then all-timer is off the table. Rocket Richard didn’t need to go to Detroit to get over the hump, and Gordie Howe didn’t find himself in Montreal. If you’re top, top drawer, switching teams is as good as giving up.

The Oilers cannot be radically improved for next year, but I can think of a few teams in hockey that might be. So while it’s not yet ‘this year or bust’ for McDavid, it’s getting close.

But were he to do it now, just as everyone starts to get the glimmer of an idea that his time at the peak is passing? That would be something. That would be worth the wait.