While it was expected that Connor McDavid would dominate offensively as soon as he entered the NHL, the more surprising aspect of his play as an 18-year-old rookie last year was that he had a lot of poise without the puck as well. When I did my breakdown of the NHL’s top-20 centres, McDavid ended up about on par with John Tavares, who isn’t known for his defensive prowess — but that’s still impressive for a teenager.
The rate at which McDavid has improved his game is astonishing to watch, so I decided to take a look at his even strength play without the puck to see how he might have improved early this season compared to last year.
As it turns out, McDavid has seen some strong improvement without possession of the puck, specifically when it comes to winning battles for loose pucks, and disrupting opposition plays with pass blocks and blocked shots.
Overall, McDavid is still a bit behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in terms of pure defensive play, but at the rate McDavid’s refining his game, it likely won’t take very long for him to overtake all his teammates.
McDavid’s 10.8 offensive zone loose puck recoveries per 20 minutes played leads the entire Oilers team, while he ranks fifth among Oilers forwards in the defensive zone, and third in the neutral zone.
That dominance on loose pucks leads to more possession time for McDavid and creates offensive opportunities from defensive play.
In terms of blocked passes, McDavid is only average, but he’s been improving his game there, too, using his hockey sense to jump into lanes at the last second and steal pucks as well as blocking the pass.
One interesting bit for McDavid is his big increase in shot blocking, which he barely did last year but is above average at this year. It’s possible that he’s just more comfortable getting in front of pucks this season, but you might also assume that having the captaincy has made him feel like he needs to lead by example. It’s especially interesting that he’s blocking so many shot attempts relative to last season when he is facing slightly fewer shot attempts against overall.
The only areas where McDavid hasn’t seen improvement are in the physical battle stats like body checking and stick checking. Obviously it would be a positive if McDavid had improved there as well, but it’s possible the Oilers don’t want him to be the primary defender in that way, instead preferring he hang back and use his speed to get to the loose puck as a result of a stick or body check. That would make a certain amount of sense.
Either way, despite the small sample, it surely looks like McDavid’s defensive game is improving already, and we know that offensively he’s almost impossible to stop. Add to that the fact McDavid is likely the best skater in the NHL, which will lead to him being a transition player not many can compete with, and you see why lots of people are in a rush to anoint him the best player in the world already.
I’d lean towards that title remaining with Sidney Crosby for now, however you can clearly see McDavid’s trajectory – it won’t be long before he overtakes Crosby.
