Erie Otters’ Connor McDavid adapting well to OHL grind

The getaway game of one of the Ontario Hockey League's notorious 3-in-3 road trips is not an an optimal time to see a much publicized rookie in peak form. Still, even while his Erie Otters laboured through their third game in fewer than 48 hours last Saturday, one could see why Connor McDavid is something extraordinary.

The circumstances were unfavourable for both the 15-year-old phenom and his team, thanks to a combination of playing a matinee in Ottawa and a dispiriting overtime loss in Kingston the evening prior. Still, there was McDavid protecting the puck down low on a power play before zipping a cross-crease pass to Connor Brown for the lone Otters goal in the 8-1 loss. Or the times he sent teammates in a goal for scoring chances. There was a vignette off-ice when Sherry Bassin, the Otters' managing partner, had Erie's equipment managers open the stick bag to find a left-handed model McDavid could sign so it could be included in a charity auction — not exactly a request made of many first-year juniors. Even on a day when he described his energy as "not bad, not great," McDavid flashed some star power.

The Newmarket, Ont., native has six points in his first five OHL games. That's a harbinger of greater numbers to come, since he and his teammates are still getting used to each other.

"It's been going all right," McDavid said. "We haven't had a real good start, but we had an alright weekend with three points out of six."

The Otters are playing the patient game with their young lineup after going through a difficult 10-win season last winter. Even with the willingness to play the kids, it's notable that McDavid is already seeing time on the penalty kill, as he did last Thursday in Peterborough. Any rookie forward who earns that duty is in rare company; Tyler Seguin did so as a 16-year-old Plymouth Whaler in 2008-09. Two years later, he was a full-time Boston Bruin.

"That's pretty cool," McDavid said of the PK time. "It shows the coaches have put a lot of trust in me to go out and execute ... It's a really big honour to be out there on the penalty kill but I have to prove them right.

"It's really important because the guys at the next level look for is the guy who's the complete player," he said.

The Otters, off to a 1-3-1-0 start, will have some ma-said-there'd-be-days-like-this moments as they rebuild this season. That's something to take into consideration while appraising McDavid's progress, but the big takeaway is that he isn't focused on racking up points.

"I think he's a complete player," Otters coach Robbie Ftorek said on Saturday. "He's conscientious. I know he really wants to work on his faceoffs, that's something we have to work on. But defensively, he's doing a great job."

McDavid is receiving mentoring from left wing Stephen Harper, the Otters' best bet for this summer's NHL draft. The two don't always play together, with overage J.P. Labardo, five years McDavid's senior, often lining up with he and 18-year-old Brown. On the ice, there's a feeling-out process between the boy wonder and his older teammates. It's not as extreme as what would happen if Steve Nash showed up at a pickup basketball game, but there have been times McDavid's seeing-eye passes have caught teammates off-guard.

"He'll be getting a lot more [points] as he gets more and more comfortable and — more importantly — as the players get more and more comfortable with him," Ftorek said. "That's important because they're really playing with somebody that's way above them with the thought process.

"It's great for him and the penalty killing is really good for him to learn because he's going to be with us for three years and now's a good time for him to learn," the coach added.

The signature already seems as stylized as any NHLer's. Big flourish for the initials, squiggly line for the other letters and his number 97. How long has McDavid been working on that?

"Not very long," he said.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.