SUNRISE, Fla. – Connor McDavid wasn’t in solitary confinement before the NHL Draft on Friday night. He wasn’t in a hermetically sealed bubble, or wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam. Although these would all be reasonable ways to protect a human investment.
He’s a commodity now, after his name was called by the Edmonton Oilers and he was handed a bright orange sweater with his No. 97 on the back – not the customary No. 15 the other, non-Chosen-One draft picks were handed to signify their draft year. But in the hours before the draft, he was an 18-year-old kid on a beach vacation with his family.