Having picked up three assists in Team Canada’s 4-0 win over Team Czechia on Thursday, Team Canada was back in action on Friday against Team Switzerland. Under six minutes into the opening period, McDavid scored his first career Olympic goal.

In this edition of Flashback Friday, we’ll look at some of McDavid’s first goals, his first Ontario Hockey League goal, his first National Hockey League goal, his first NHL playoff goal, his first 4 Nations Face-Off goal, and finally, his first Olympic goal.

First OHL goal

In 2005, John Tavares became the first player in Canadian Hockey League history to achieve exceptional status. He’d go on to have some memorable moments in junior hockey, mainly with the Oshawa Generals, but finishing his junior career with the London Knights. While he never went on to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup with either team, nor the Memorial Cup, Tavares won back-to-back gold medals with the Canadian World Junior team, and was selected first overall by the New York Islanders in 2009.

Tavares was the first of nine players in the CHL to be given exceptional status. It’s a mixed bag of talent, because for every Tavares, McDavid or Aaron Ekblad, you get a Sean Day, Joe Veleno, or Shane Wright. The jury is still out on Connor Bedard, Michael Misa, and Landon DuPont, the latter is projected to be a top pick in the 2027 draft.

McDavid is by far the best of the nine, and that was the case even in junior. The Erie Otters selected him first overall in the 2012 OHL draft, and he was held pointless in his first game, a 4-2 loss to the Niagara IceDogs. The following day, the Otters traveled to London, Ontario, to take on the powerhouse Knights.

Six minutes into that game, Max Domi opened the scoring for the Knights. But midway through the first period, McDavid got the zone entry, dropped the puck back to Connor Brown. The puck found its way to the point after Brown’s pass was blocked, and with McDavid in front of the net, he got a deflection on it to beat the Knights netminder.

McDavid also picked up an assist in this game, but it was all the Knights in this one, as they won 8-2 thanks to Seth Griffth’s hat trick. Yes, Griffith is a long-time Bakersfield Condor and leads the team in points.

The future Oiler went on to score 25 goals and 66 points in 63 games, turning 16 years old midway through the season. In the following season, McDavid scored 28 goals and 99 points in 56 games, including four goals and 19 points in 14 games.

In his draft year, McDavid scored 44 goals and 120 points in just 47 games, missing a sizable chunk of the season due to an injury sustained in a fight. Had he played the entire season on the pace he was on, McDavid would’ve scored 63 goals and 173 points. He basically had the same point production in the playoffs, scoring 21 goals and 49 points in 20 games, as the Otters fell in five games to the Oshawa Generals in the finals.

As you know, the Oilers landed the first overall pick in the 2015 draft and made the easiest decision in franchise history, drafting McDavid first overall.

First NHL goal

If McDavid were to retire now, he’d be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Over 770 NHL games, the Newmarket product has 395 goals and 1,178 points, and has a realistic opportunity to become the second player to reach 2,000 points. He’s about to pick up his ninth 100+ point season in just 11 seasons, missing the 100-point mark on one of those seasons by just three points due to injury and a global pandemic.

McDavid was held pointless in his first two NHL games of the 2015-16 season. The Oilers lost the season opener 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues, before being shutout 2-0 by the Nashville Predators. It took McDavid until his third NHL game to find twine.

You can see a lot of similarities between his first OHL and NHL goal. In a game against the Dallas Stars, McDavid came out of the corner after Benoît Pouliot lost out on a board battle to Aleš Hemský. The former Oiler was unable to clear the puck, with future Dallas Star Andrej Sekera keeping the puck in at the point. The defenceman shot it, with McDavid getting a touch on it while driving the net to pot his first NHL goal of his illustrious career.

McDavid went on to score five goals and 12 points in 12 games during October. But in the first game of November, McDavid crashed into the boards and broke his clavicle. The Oilers fell out of playoff contention in the 38 games that McDavid missed, but in his first game back, McDavid scored arguably his nicest NHL goal.

He finished the year with 16 goals and 48 points in 45 games, the only other time he’s failed to reach the 100 point mark in a season. Unfortunately, the Oilers missed the postseason and had another high pick in the 2016 draft.

First NHL playoff goal

Everything came around for the Oilers in 2016-17. With a 47-26-9 record and 103 points, they finished second in the Pacific Division, earning their first postseason berth since the 2005-06 season, where they came oh so close to winning the Stanley Cup.

It was a great season for McDavid, as he scored 30 goals and 100 points in 82 games, winning the Hart trophy, the Art Ross, and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy (now called the Ted Lindsey). In the first round, the Oilers faced off against the Sharks.

In later years, also known as the last four seasons, McDavid has gone on to become one of the most dominant postseason performers in NHL history. However, his first foray in the NHL’s playoffs was far from dominant. He scored just five goals and nine points in 13 games, as the Oilers fell in seven games to the Ducks, no, I’m still not over it.

Before facing the Ducks, the Oilers took on the San Jose Sharks. In Game 1, they fell in overtime to put them down early in the series. They would respond in Game 2 on April 14th, 2017. This happened to be the Zack Kassian™ game, as he laid out several big hits and even scored a shorthanded goal early in the second.

With the Oilers up 1-0 midway through the third period, it was McDavid’s turn to score his first postseason goal, as he burst into the Sharks zone with speed on the penalty kill and ripped it past Martin Jones to make it 2-0.

This postseason happened to be where Leon Draisaitl showed signs of becoming a superstar. Splitting him and McDavid up for most of the playoffs, Draisaitl went on to score six goals and 16 points to lead the team in both goals and points.

First 4 Nations Face-Off goal

Moving into the current day, in preparation for the 2026 Olympics, the National Hockey League did away with the All-Star game for the 2024-25 season, instead replacing it with an international tournament between Team Canada, Team USA, Team Finland, and Team Sweden.

In Team Canada’s first game, McDavid picked up an assist in a 4-3 win over Team Sweden. Heading into Canada’s second game, a matchup with Team USA, a lot was on the line. On top of the usual pride, this was when the tariff and “51st State” nonsense was at its peak. In response, Team Canada and Team USA dropped the gloves three times in the first nine seconds of the game.

I was at a party at the time, and I decided to get up and leave after these three fights. It looked as if I made the right decision, as McDavid blew by Team USA’s defence and roofed it on his backhand to give Team Canada the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Americans ended up winning that round robin game 3-1.

Needing a win against Team Finland to book their spot in the final, McDavid opened the scoring just under five minutes into the game to help Canada jump out to a 4-0 lead. Team Finland stormed back with three goals, but Sidney Crosby’s empty netter sealed the win for Team Canada, setting up a final against Team USA.

Nathan MacKinnon scored five minutes into the first, Team USA tied it before the end of the first, then took the lead midway through the second. Thankfully, Sam Bennett scored with six minutes left in the second period to set up overtime. And, well, you know the rest, as McDavid scored the Golden Goal.

While it wasn’t quite best-on-best in terms of having teams like Team Czechia, Team Germany, and others, it was a nice precursor to the Olympics.

First Olympic goal

On Friday, McDavid scored his first career Olympic goal, getting the puck from MacKinnon on a power play and beating Team Switzerland’s Akira Schmid to give Team Canada a 1-0 lead. They went on to win 5-1, earning them the group and putting them in a strong position to finish first in the round robin stages.

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HOCKEY M 🏒 Un premier but pour le Canada 🇨🇦 contre la Suisse! 🎉 Le but a été marqué par Connor McDavid en avantage numérique ! @HockeyCanada @LNH_FR #MilanoCortina2026 #rcsports #jeuxolympiques #hockey #EquipeCanada #TeamCanada

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8:20 PM · Feb 13, 2026

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McDavid has been a bit part of that, because on top of a goal and two assists on Friday, he picked up three assists on Thursday. His six points lead the tournament, as Team Canada has a showdown with Team France on Sunday to end the group stage play.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.