Do we like Connor McDavid?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Backed Pride tape and kids' charities publicly, with one dismissive 2022 answer about a controversial signing as the real blemish.
Connor McDavid was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, in January 1997, and the Edmonton Oilers drafted him first overall in 2015. He went on to win the Art Ross Trophy in 2017 and 2018 and the Hart Trophy in 2017, and has won international gold with Team Canada. For a bloke who's the best hockey player on the planet, he's been remarkably low-drama.
The Kane stoush is the one real blot. In January 2022, as the Oilers were being linked to Evander Kane, who had been suspended over a fake vaccine card and whose estranged wife had made domestic violence allegations the NHL said it couldn't substantiate, McDavid said he wasn't there to discuss “optic issues”. He was criticised almost across the board for it, and he backed his GM's comments about second chances.
On the harm check, nothing of his own turned up that targets women, migrants, LGBTQ+ people or the planet. When the NHL banned Pride tape in 2023, he publicly said he wanted that ban reversed, which is the right side of the ledger for this page. We found no statements from him on climate or vaccines, so that's a gap rather than a pass or fail.
On the ice, the discipline stuff is typical hockey fare, and we found no lawsuits, abuse allegations or criminal cases against him. Nothing in the sources we opened points to a bully or a boss everyone fears.
Nothing new on him lately that bears on our questions, bar a March 2026 call for the NHL to review its suspension process after the Radko Gudas ruling. He asked why the league doesn't “take a look at the process”, which is a player standing up for the game's safety rather than a scandal.
The good stuff is real. He visited an Edmonton school that raised money for the Ben Stelter Foundation, telling Global News it was “close to my heart”, and praised the kids for raising money for other kids. Sources also report larger donations to that foundation, but we only opened the school-visit story.