October 30, 2024 by Eric Friesen

The Edmonton Oilers announced that Connor McDavid will miss the next two to three weeks with an ankle injury on Wednesday.

McDavid sustained the injury during his first shift of a 6-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday, when he was tripped by Zach Werenski as he entered the offensive zone in full stride and jammed his left skate into the boards. Werenski escaped this incident without being penalized.

While Oilers fans were understandably concerned over losing McDavid for any length of time, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug tweeted during the second period that initial reports suggested McDavid’s injury was not believed to be too serious.

“You never know what the outcome was going to be and how long [McDavid would be out],” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch told Oilers TV on Wednesday. “Obviously, you don’t want to miss him for any time, but when you think about what could have been, I guess we’re lucky that it’s as short as it is. There’s obviously challenges of not having the best player, point producer, and somebody who gets one-and-a-half, two points per game, that will make an impact on our team.”

Since being sidelined for 37 games with a broken clavicle during his rookie campaign in 2015-16, McDavid has never missed double-digits in games in a single season. McDavid missed six games with separate core muscle and lower-body injuries in 2023-24, but still finished third in the league in points (132) and became only the fourth player in NHL history to record 100 assists in a single season.

Related: Oilers curiously recall both Caggiula and Philp

With McDavid on the shelf, the Oilers recalled Drake Caggiula and Noah Philp from the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors on Tuesday. Caggiula, who played all of last season in the AHL, tallied 27 goals and 50 points in 156 games with the Oilers from 2016-2018. Philp, who was the final cut at Oilers’ training camp this fall, could make his NHL debut against the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

However, it’s impossible to replace the best player in the world, even despite his usually slow start. The Oilers captain has three goals and 10 points in 10 games this season, and is just eight points away from reaching the 1,000-point plateau in his future Hockey Hall of Fame career.

Still, because of their disappointing 4-5-1 record to start the season, the Oilers need to find a way to string together some wins without their captain in the lineup, or risk falling too far behind the other top teams in the Pacific Division. Leon Draisaitl will slide into the No. 1 centre spot in McDavid’s absence, where he will be expected to drive the team’s offence during this important stretch. Draisaitl has 51 points in 50 games without McDavid since they became teammates in 2015-16.

The only real positives here are that McDavid is known to be a quick healer, and Edmonton is only scheduled to play five games in the next 13 days. Under his current timeline, the earliest McDavid could return to action would be on November 12 against the New York Islanders.