Seems like yesterday Connor McDavid was 18, now the Oilers captain is 24

Oiler coach Dave Tippett laughed at McDavid turning 24.

“Makes me feel old. I’ve got a 34-year-old daughter,” said Tippett, who is 59.

McDavid has won a Hart trophy and two scoring titles, but the Oilers haven’t gone deep in the playoffs and the clock is ticking on his prime. Wayne Gretzky, who turns 60 on Jan. 26, had won one Cup and was on the verge a second when he was 24.

“Definitely a sense of urgency. The years go by fast and we’ve only been in the playoffs once,” said McDavid, whose Oilers beat San Jose before losing to Anaheim in Game 7 of his one and only playoff appearance in 2017. “I want to play in the big games and I want to start winning something.

“I think we had a shift in the culture in regular season last year and became a winning team but when we came back and into the bubble, it was no good. It was a Tale of Two Seasons.”

MAKE ROOM

It’s no surprise Oilers training camp tryout forward Devin Shore was signed to the league minimum $700,000, with $150,000 if he ends up playing in the American Hockey League. Shore, once traded for Andrew Cogliano, has to go on waivers first and be cleared to go to the taxi — or is it Uber? — squad. But Shore, with 288 games in Dallas, Anaheim and Columbus, had a strong camp.

“He looks like an NHL player, practises like one. He’s a glue guy because he can play all three forward positions and that’s a valuable asset for a coach,” Tippett said.

LOOKING AT GOALTENDING

With the Oilers losing third goalie Anton Forsberg to Carolina, general manager Ken Holland has to find another taxi-squadder, because he wants Stuart Skinner to play on the farm in Bakersfield.