Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid has fired back, in his own way, about not drawing nearly as many penalty calls as other elite-level players.
When asked if he feels he’s deserving of getting more calls, McDavid was brief but pointed.
“Guess I just gotta shut up about this,” he told reporters during media availability on Thursday.
It wasn’t immediately clear, but there was a sense McDavid was responding to critics that he shouldn’t get preferential treatment and should just play.
“Yeah and he complained about it a little bit, that he wasn’t getting the calls,” former NHL coach John Tortorella, now an ESPN analyst, said last week. “Quite honestly, just shut up. Don’t talk about it.”
According to website naturalstattrick.com, before games on Thursday, McDavid was 57th in the league when it comes to drawing penalties, with five. McDavid is second in league scoring with 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points in 15 games. By comparison, teammate and the league’s leading scorer, Leon Draisaitl, has 17 goals and 16 assists for 33 points in 15 games — and has drawn seven penalties, which is 23rd in the league, according to naturalhattrick.
In four games in the playoffs last season, McDavid didn’t draw a single penalty while being swept out of the first round by the Winnipeg Jets.
Alex DeBrincat of the Chicago Blackhawks and Brendan Gallagher of the Montreal Canadiens are tied for the league lead in drawing penalties, with 10 each.
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