We kicked off this summer’s countdown on Tuesday with The Great One. Now with 97 days left until the start of the Edmonton Oilers’ 2023-24 season, we have Connor McDavid, who came into the league as “The Next One.”

Edmonton’s “Oil Change” wasn’t going as planned. The Oilers picked first overall at the 2010, 2011, and 2012 drafts and had selections in the top 10 of the 2009, 2013, and 2014 drafts, but the team was still toiling away in mediocrity.

That all changed at the draft lottery in 2015.

The Oilers finished third-last in the NHL that season behind the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes, two teams who engaged in an all-time tanking battle to try to draft the best prospect that hockey had seen since Sidney Crosby a decade earlier. The Sabres and Coyotes had the best odds of landing the first-overall pick but it was Edmonton’s lottery ball that wound up being the golden ticket.

McDavid put up video game numbers in his third go-around in the OHL in 2014-15. He scored 44 goals and 120 points over the course of 47 regular-season games and added 21 goals and 49 points in 20 games in the playoffs.

The expectations for No. 97 were sky-high when he was coming into the NHL and it’s safe to say that he’s passed with flying colours.

Through eight seasons in the league, McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy five times, the Ted Lindsay Award four times, the Hart Trophy three times, and the Rocket Richard Trophy once. He was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie Team in 2014-15 and has been named a First Team All-Star five times.

McDavid’s performance in 2022-23 was the most impressive of this generation. He shattered the 50-goal plateau for the first time in his career and led the NHL with 64 goals and he became just the sixth player in league history to score 150 points in a single season and the first to do so since Mario Lemieux in 1995‑96.

Now at 850 points for his career, it’s reasonable to assume that McDavid can become the third-fastest player ever to reach 1,000 points. Wayne Gretzky did so in 424 games and Lemieux reached the mark in 513 games, but at 569 games played, McDavid has plenty of time to edge out Mike Bossy, who scored 1,000 in 656 games.

As incredible as McDavid’s individual results have been, the main goal is to win the Stanley Cup. He’s guided the Oilers to the second round twice and to the Western Conference Final once but he’s still searching for hockey’s greatest prize.