Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid will make his return from an ankle injury Wednesday night as his team hosts the Vegas Golden Knights.

McDavid assumed his usual spot as the Oilers’ number-one centre, and was flanked by Zach Hyman and Jeff Skinner, Bob Stauffer highlighted from the team’s morning skate. Other changes to the forward corps saw Ryan Nugent-Hopkins dropped from his spot on the first line to centring Adam Henrique and Connor Brown on the third line. That bumped Mattias Janmark from the third line to the fourth, with Noah Philp set to draw out of the lineup.

It marked the first time he was skating with linemates nine days after he injured his ankle against the Columbus Blue Jackets. His initial prognosis was that he would miss two-to-three weeks with his injury, similar to the timeline Florida Panthers centre Aleksander Barkov had when he suffered a similar injury in the first week of the season.

McDavid, however, beat the timeline for his injury by a full week.

McDavid practiced with the team on Monday, saying his injured ankle was feeling good.

“It feels pretty good,” he said Monday. “Not too much limiting me on the ice. I’m happy with how it feels.

“When it first happened, you’re concerned it’s maybe something a little more serious, but thankfully I’ve got good news on it, and I’ve been doing every thing possible to make it feel better. I’m not just sitting around, waiting for it to feel better, I’m doing a lot of different things. The team here, the medical team here, the staff here, everybody is great and understanding that I’m always pushing to play and I’m trying to find that balance.”

The Oilers’ blue line remains the same from Monday’s loss to the New Jersey Devils.

Edmonton went 2-1 with McDavid out of the lineup, beating the Nashville Predators 5-1 and the Calgary Flames 4-2 as Leon Draisaitl racked up six points between them, but the Oilers fell Monday night, shutout 3-0 by the New Jersey Devils.

Puck drop between the Oilers and Golden Knights is set for 6:30 p.m.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.