Edmonton Oilers: Is Connor McDavid A Great Team Leader?

Connor McDavid and Team Canada were favored to win gold in the IIHF World Championship but only made it to fourth place. Is that on McDavid or his team?

What did Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid learn the past few weeks in Denmark? He was the captain of Team Canada and couldn’t lead his team to a gold medal, let alone to third place against the United States.

There are a lot of critics who believe that his performance as captain with both his national and NHL team are proof that he isn’t qualified for the position. Those people do bring up some valuable points but don’t paint the entire picture of the leadership skills that Connor McDavid has.

You can’t fault Connor McDavid on how the Edmonton Oilers season turned out. Management made some questionable moves the season before and during the summer. The coaching staff didn’t prepare the team to hit the gas running out of the gate to kick off the season. Also, you can’t forget about how specific players regressed after having a career season the year before.

All Connor McDavid can do is control what he can on the ice, and he brought it every single night. He scored 41 goals and had 67 assists for the year. For most nights he did what he needed to do for his team, and that was score as many goals as he can.

Team Canada Captain

So when Connor McDavid was announced to be captain of Team Canada in mid-April, most experts expected that he would be leading the team to gold. Can you honestly blame them? The team he was captaining was filled with young stars that were way more talented than any of the players on his Oilers team.

Especially with how the IIHF World Championship was shaping up, it seemed like a lock that Team Canada was favored to win it all. After a month rolls by, that prediction can be thrown out in the trash.

What this tournament showed was that this team was too reliant on Connor McDavid just like how the Edmonton Oilers were. He took a step back in the scoring department and played primarily as a playmaker by dishing out 12 assists.

He did everything he can to get his teammates involved, but they and the coaching staff were looking for him to be their savior. That isn’t on Connor McDavid and his leadership skills, that’s on everybody else to stop relying on him to bail them out. It’s happened to every superstar player in every sport, their teammates or coaching staff expect them to do everything instead of them taking the initiative.

Can that approach change in the long run for the Edmonton Oilers after witnessing what happened on Sunday? I guess we will see next season.