‘You just need to watch him’: Connor McDavid hitting new highs ahead of Olympic debut

EDMONTON – Connor McDavid shines in big moments. 

Now the Edmonton Oilers captain is on the brink of one of his biggest moments yet — his first Olympics. 

“It’s the biggest sporting event in the world and to do it together with 25 of Canada’s best hockey players, it’s a dream come true, it really is,” McDavid said. “I know everybody feels the same way and we’re just looking for the opportunity to go over and play.” 

Heading into the Milan Cortina Olympics, the 29-year-old superstar centre from Richmond Hill, Ont., has once again found ways to elevate his game.

He’s helped the Oilers to back-to-back Stanley Cup final appearances, and currently leads the NHL in points with 34 goals and 52 assists across 58 games this season. The tally includes the 36 points he amassed over a career-best 20-game point streak in December and January, where he put up 19 goals and 17 assists. 

McDavid graces highlight reels nearly every night, pirouetting around defenders, threading no-look passes through traffic jams and leaving goaltenders flummoxed.

“This is the best I’ve seen Connor play for this long of a stretch,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “And whether that’s just him playing well or him being focused on the Olympics, I’m not sure. But obviously that is on his mind. He wants to do well there.”

This latest level hasn’t stunned the teammates who’ve worked alongside him in Edmonton for 11 seasons.

“I’m not surprised,” said Leon Draisaitl. “I just see the work he puts in. I see how badly he wants to be at that level each and every night, each and every day. And there’s not much that surprises me with him.”

Long considered the best player in the world, McDavid always plays at an elite level every night. What ramps up in big moments is his intensity, spurring everyone in the locker room, said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. 

“Obviously, as a hockey player, you’re not trying to do the same things he does,” he said. “But you can follow his competitiveness and his intensity and the little things that he does.”

There’s pressure that comes with skating on a line with that level of talent, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Nugent-Hopkins added. 

“That’s what also makes it fun, is there is that pressure to try and play at, not his level, but the version of my level that can play with him,” said the veteran winger. “So it makes it a lot of fun, when you’ve got to get your feet moving a lot, you’ve got to read off him.”

The NHL’s up-and-coming stars grew up watching McDavid and have tried to model their own play after his. 

Now in his second year in the league, Macklin Celebrini said he’s already learned a lot from the Oilers forward.

“Just the way he plays the game. It’s special, the way he skates,” said the 19-year-old San Jose Sharks centre. “I mean, every time he’s on the ice, he makes special things happen. You don’t need to hear from me. You just need to watch him.”

Celebrini, who went first overall in the 2024 draft, said there’s still more he can take from McDavid, who was the No. 1 pick in 2015. 

The way McDavid thinks the game is unique, Celebrini said. 

“I’m always trying to learn from a guy like that,” said the teen, who’ll get an opportunity to learn from the elder star first hand on the Canadian Olympic team. 

“He slows the game down. Obviously, with his speed, he’s able to kind of push the defence back. But even when he’s moving at normal speed, he’s just thinking the game faster than everyone, and especially on the power play.”

Game planning for that kind of talent and mindset has been a headache for NHL coaches for more than a decade. 

No matter what you throw at him, McDavid will get his chances, said Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube.

“I’m not sure there is a game plan for him,” he said before his team faced the Oilers in Edmonton on Tuesday. “You’ve got to make him go through everybody as much as you can. It takes five guys out there. 

“We’ve got to do a good job of managing the puck when he’s on the ice, and putting pucks into the offensive zone and going to work and make him play down there, because you can frustrate him at times, but he’s going to get his opportunities, that’s for sure.”

It’s taken a long time for McDavid to get the opportunity to play best-on-best hockey on the world stage. NHL players are returning to the Olympics for the first time since playing at the Sochi Games in 2014. 

Last year, fans got an appetizer with the 4 Nations Face-Off, where Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland battled for supremacy in a series of games in Montreal and Boston.

McDavid played hero in the gold medal game, collecting a pass from Mitch Marner and blasting a shot past American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to give Canada a 3-2 overtime victory.

The moment had been a long time coming, McDavid said in an essay for the Players’ Tribune last week. 

“When I pulled on my jersey for the final against the U.S., I remembered that it had been eight years since that World Championship gold medal in Moscow. That was the last time I celebrated winning something. Eight years,” he wrote. 

“Representing Canada means everything to me. With not being able to play at the Olympics until this season, it’s been this part of me that’s been missing.”

That’s always been the case, said Knoblauch. 

He remembers coaching McDavid as a teenager when he played for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters, and the excitement the teen sensation had as he prepared to don the Maple Leaf at the world junior hockey championship. 

“For him to be the player that he is, and never get to perform or participate at the highest level, at the Olympics, I think that’s disappointing to not be able to see the best players at that stage,” Knoblauch said. 

“I think this is something that he’s wanted to do for a while, and it’s probably been building up for many years, because he’s missed the Olympics where he should have been in them, but they just didn’t participate. So I think he’s very excited about this opportunity.”

Canada will begin the tournament against Czechia on Feb. 12. McDavid isn’t concerned about finding his moment to shine when the tournament begins. 

After all, Canada’s roster features some of the best players in the world, he said. 

“I know my place in that room and it’s a great room. There’s a lot of great players, a lot of great voices and leaders. Everybody just has to do their part, that’s all it is,” he said. 

“That’s what makes a team like that special. Everybody can contribute in their own way and I’m looking to do that obviously.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2026.