If there’s one thing we know about Connor McDavid, it’s that he can play with pretty much anybody and still be able to produce.

He’s a world-class talent and is able to elevate the play of those around him.

And since he’s returned to the lineup since his quad injury, he’s had a revolving door of players hopping into his sidecar depending on the period. Now, normally this isn’t much of an issue, but it’s time to talk about Connor McDavid’s wingers as we start the push for the playoffs.

We’re going to take a small look at a number of players who have gotten the McDavid bump at 5v5 in the last three games.

We’re using CF% to help us show how well McDavid and x player are driving play, and xGF% to tell how well they are generating goal chances and limiting goal chances against.

It’s important to note, as always, that this is a very small sample size over three games since McDavid’s return. Edmonton’s analytics in all three games against Nashville, Dallas, and Chicago were not great, so that shows the low rates above.

What jumps out right away is that Tippett has been giving @Tyler Ennis a lot of looks with McDavid on the first line, but that there hasn’t been much production there and that McDavid is performing better in slightly less TOI without Ennis, than with him. That’s also seen with @Josh Archibald, who has played the second most 5v5 minutes with McDavid in the last three games.

@Andreas Athanasiou has seen a few minutes with McDavid here and there and has posted results better than McDavid with Ennis, or @James Neal.

Neal saw a lot of minutes last night with McDavid, but they really struggled against Chicago. @Zack Kassian, meanwhile, is a wrecking ball alongside McDavid. In only three minutes of time together, they drove play and expected goals like a runaway semi-truck looking for an emergency turnoff.

In Neal’s defence, he just doesn’t seem to have the ability to keep up with McDavid 5v5. Neal’s underlying numbers are good, and could be a very solid fit in the bottom-six with PP1 time.

Edmonton has a few options for McDavid’s wingers and I think some combination of the above options would work well. Evidently, I think we are seeing Dave Tippett trying to find the best fit and that’s why the line blender has come out.

As we continue in the push for the playoffs, I think we’ll see Kassian getting more and more time on McDavid’s wing. Kassian’s underlying numbers showing strong isolated impacts both in the offensive, and defensive zone. He plays a big man’s game and helps make space on the top line for McDavid to fly around. If you remember Pat Maroon from the 2017 playoffs, he did a great job of doing just that.

As for the other wing, I would like to see Tippett experiment more with Athanasiou alongside McDavid. AA has been struggling a bit since he’s come to Edmonton, but he also did get a little banged up in one of his first games. He’s been up and down the lineup, but I like the speed and offensive smarts he brings to the table. We’ve also seen in a small sample size that he’s had success with McDavid.

I think Ennis, too, could be a solid option, but I like his ability to drive play offensively and could fit on the third line with @Riley Sheahan and @Josh Archibald.

The emergence of the Oilers 1A line of @Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, @Leon Draisaitil and @Kailer Yamamoto has been a huge positive for an Edmonton team sorely lacking strong secondary scoring. The club now needs to shift their focus on building a consistent top line around McDavid that can build some chemistry ahead of a likely playoff appearance.

On Twitter: @zjlaing