October 18, 2022 by Eric Friesen

Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid was named NHL Second Star of the Week for October 10-16 with four goals and five points in two games on Monday.

McDavid scored a hat trick and added an assist to lead the Oilers to a thrilling, 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Vancouver Canucks in their home-opener on October 12. It was his 11th career NHL hat trick and second in a home-opener (he also scored a hat trick on opening night against the Calgary Flames on October 4, 2017).

The Oilers captain joined Cam Neely and Brendan Shanahan as the only players in NHL history with multiple hat tricks in season openers. McDavid dedicated the hat trick to the memory of Oilers superfan Ben Stelter, who sadly passed away on August 9 after a courageous battle with brain cancer.

“Tonight was for our buddy Ben,” McDavid told Sportsnet’s Scott Oake following the victory. “We miss him. For the whole Stelter family, we think about him. I think about him after big wins and tonight was a big win and I’m thinking about him. You know his favorite saying was ‘Play La Bamba, baby!’, so I think we’ll have to listen to that tonight.”

Even more impressively, McDavid recorded his 700th career NHL point in the victory against the Canucks. McDavid reached the 700-point plateau in just 488 games, making him the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to hit the milestone. The 25-year-old trails only Wayne Gretzky (317 games), Mario Lemieux (363 games), Peter Stastny (457 games), Mike Bossy (469 games) and Jari Kurri (483 games).

McDavid scored another goal in a 4-3 loss to the Flames on Saturday. Despite the disappointing result in the first edition of the Battle of Alberta this season, McDavid now has 30 goals and 60 points in 40 career games against their provincial rivals, including the regular season and playoffs (his most points against any single opponent).