Oilers get good-news McDavid injury update

Speculation was running wild over the last few days on how long the Oilers could expect to be without their captain. It seemed like the consensus was that McDavid had suffered some sort of high-ankle sprain in Columbus, which carried a varied timeline for recovery.

The Oilers have confirmed that it was an ankle injury for McDavid and gave a timeline for his return to the lineup.

“Oilers captain Connor McDavid sustained an ankle injury during Monday’s game in Columbus and is expected to return to action in two to three weeks,” the official team account posted on social media.

 

McDavid went down on the first shift of Monday night’s 6-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on what seemed like an innocuous-enough play. He was able to get up quickly after falling and even took a few strides up the ice before he noticed something was wrong.

He was ruled out for the remainder of the game and, after flying to Nashville with the team, was chartered back to Edmonton on Tuesday to undergo more assessment.

 

The Oilers have called up two players to help round up the lineup without McDavid. Noah Philp is expected to make his NHL debut as early as tomorrow night and Drake Caggiula has been brought up to help create a sense of competition in the bottom-six and bring a bit more speed and energy down the lineup.

Losing McDavid for a couple of weeks is far from an ideal situation for the Oilers, but considering the alternative may have been a few months, you have to believe members of Edmonton’s upper management are breathing a sigh of relief with this morning’s news.

It’ll be up to the rest of the players to get the team in a better position before McDavid returns to the lineup.