Are the Comeback Kids, Evander Kane and Connor Brown, the right fit for McDavid?

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Published Sep 27, 2023  •  Last updated 1 week ago  •  4 minute read

Connor McDavid (97) skates on the second day of 2023 Edmonton Oilers training camp at Rogers Place on Friday, Sept 22, 2023. Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia

One guy is coming off a horrific wrist injury. Another one is coming back after a year on the shelf with a devastating knee injury. And the third guy is Connor McDavid.

So, yeah, it has the makings of a pretty great line.

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Let’s face it, any line with McDavid on it is something to get excited about, but throw in a couple of comeback stories in Evander Kane and Connor Brown, who both look and feel like their old selves again, and the Edmonton Oilers might be on to something big.

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“I know Brownie really well and Kaner has come in and looked really good off the bat,” said McDavid, who, of course, played junior hockey with Brown. “Three pretty good players.”

Three pretty good players, indeed.

The Oilers spent the last few years trying to find another legitimate top six forward to round out their top two lines but stalled on Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto, neither of whom could turn their golden ticket into any sort of meaningful offensive production.

With Brown in camp, and Kane back to 100 per cent, they hope they’ve finally found the elusive mix.

“Brownie hunts pucks and is quick and elusive down in the corners,” said Kane. “He can definitely add to Connor and I.

“He’s healed up well (from a torn ACL) and taken the time to feel good and feel right. He’s come in and done a good job so far. I’m sure he’s excited to get going.”

Figuring out how to align McDavid, Kane, Brown, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman into a pair of lines is a wonderful riddle that every coach in the NHL would love to have a shot at.

For Jay Woodcroft, Kane and Brown seem like a perfect fit alongside the captain. Kane, for starters, is tough, he can finish, he plays hard and he enjoys the big stage.

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“He’s powerful, goes hard to the blue paint and has a physical element to his game,” added the coach. “He’s also very underrated with the details in his game.

“You run out of adjectives to describe Connor and what he does but he plays at such a breakneck speed that you need to surround him with a certain skill set, Kane being one of them.”

And Brown?

“He’s known as a dog on a bone worker bee who goes and gets pucks for other people,” said Woodcroft. “At his best he has underrated offensive skill.”

Getting Kane back to health after the skate-blade injury last November is no small addition. He was here in body last season, but wasn’t anywhere near the player who burst onto the Oilers scene two years ago.

Between he and Brown it’s like the Oilers are getting two new impact players in the top six.

“This game is hard,” said McDavid. “If you aren’t healthy it’s almost impossible. (Kane) ground through a lot of things last year. It’s good to see him back healthy. He looks good, he’s feeling good. I expect his game to go back to where we saw it coming down the stretch a couple of years ago.”

Kane is more than excited to be healthy again and to be in a position to make his presence felt all over the ice. He did what he could last year, implying his usual menacing, in-your-face style, but the hands and the timing simply weren’t there.

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“I feel a lot better today than when I came back (last year) two and a half months after the injury when they told me I was probably done for the year,” Kane said. “And then to get banged up (ribs) right after I came back was tough.

“Obviously being healthy gives you an opportunity to be the best player you can be.”

And playing with McDavid only amplifies that opportunity.

“Things change over the course of a season and you play with different guys, but me and Connor, when we get some consistency in terms of games, we seem to figure it out and connect. Obviously fun to play with him always.”

As for himself, McDavid says he’s pretty much ready to go.

“You want to get your game up to speed and kind of iron out some of those summer habits that creep in,” he said. “I think we’ve had a good month or so here. I feel good on the ice, I feel ready to roll.”

Just the other day, NHL superstar Sidney Crosby predicted that McDavid could reach the 170-point mark this season, which would be an almost incomprehensible number if he wasn’t talking about McDavid.

While Woodcroft wouldn’t go so far as to agree that 170 points is doable, he isn’t ruling it out.

“I’ve come to learn that putting a limit on Connor McDavid’s potential is probably not a good thing. I’m not going to guesstimate how many points he’s going to get. The one thing he is concerned with is making sure his team gets two points every night.”

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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