Sports Doctor Comments on Severity of Connor McDavid Injury

On his first shift of the game, McDavid fell skate-first into the boards and twisted his ankle in an ugly way. After sliding down the length of the ice, McDavid was able to get up on his own and skate back to the bench, but did not return to the game. McDavid is now ruled out for the next two games as he returns to Edmonton for testing.

Oilers insider Bob Stauffer quickly shared that the team's immediate concern is a high ankle sprain, which depending on the grade, can between a week and several months for recovery time.

Sports Doctor Harjas Grewal of UBC provided his insight, agreeing with the diagnosis of ankle sprain. The fact that McDavid was able to leave on his own is a great sign there's no serious structural damage, so a lower grade sprain seems most likely. In a follow statement, Grewal said he is hopeful McDavid will miss less than 6 weeks.

NHL insiders are split on the potential recovery timeline for McDavid, but Chris Johnston is reporting that it will likely be another 24 hours until testing on McDavid is completed and the results are known.

It would be devastating for the Oilers and the sport of hockey to lose their greatest star for an extended period of time, especially when McDavid is only 8 points away from 1000. No matter how much time he misses, the rest of the roster will need to step up to get the team in a playoff spot.

Even with the best player in the league so far this year, the Oilers are still under .500. If McDavid is missing a significant amount of time, it quickly becomes a potential disaster for the Oilers. Now more than ever, Edmonton is going to need more out of Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and even the newcomers like Jeff Skinner and Victor Arvidsson.