Before his unparalleled ascent to NHL superstardom with the Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid’s path to professional hockey featured a little-known and rather surprising twist in the form of an international draft selection. Years before he dominated the North American ice, and a full year prior to being the undisputed first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, McDavid was already on the radar of a club operating far from the traditional hockey hotbeds.
This intriguing chapter unfolds in 2014, when a then 17-year-old McDavid, dazzling with the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League, found himself chosen in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) draft. The team that picked him, Medvescak Zagreb, was a Croatian franchise competing in the predominantly Russian KHL. Unlike the fanfare that would accompany his eventual NHL selection, McDavid was not a top pick in this instance, going 77th overall.
The reason for McDavid’s surprisingly late selection in the KHL draft sheds light on a particular strategy employed by teams within that league during that era. KHL franchises would often use their later-round picks to secure the theoretical rights to highly touted North American prospects and up-and-coming NHL stars. This unconventional approach was less about immediate recruitment and more about speculative future planning.
For Medvescak Zagreb and other KHL teams, drafting players like McDavid was a strategic gamble. The intention was to hold exclusive negotiating rights should a star player’s NHL career not pan out as expected, or if they ever decided to seek opportunities outside of North America. While the chances of an elite prospect like McDavid ever playing in the KHL were exceedingly slim, the cost of acquiring these rights was minimal, making it a low-risk, high-reward proposition.
Predictably, this strategy of calling “dibs” on burgeoning NHL talents rarely, if ever, materialized into actual signings. The top-tier players drafted in this manner, including Connor McDavid, went on to establish themselves as integral figures within the National Hockey League, with no realistic prospect of them departing for international leagues. Their careers flourished precisely as anticipated, negating the need for KHL teams to exercise their speculative rights.
Connor McDavid’s theoretical KHL rights with Medvescak Zagreb ultimately expired when the generational talent turned 22 in 2019. Adding another layer of irony to this historical footnote, Medvescak Zagreb itself had ceased to be a part of the KHL well before that, having left the league in 2017 to compete in the Balkan IHL, further underscoring the ephemeral nature of this particular draft connection.
This fascinating yet forgotten detail of Connor McDavid’s early career trajectory serves as a unique reminder that even the most destined pathways to greatness can sometimes include unexpected detours. It highlights a peculiar tactical maneuver in international hockey scouting and provides a quirky piece of trivia regarding one of the NHL’s most iconic figures, long before he etched his name into the records with the Edmonton Oilers.
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