Connor McDavid to captain Team Canada at IIHF Worlds

It’s Connor time.

Edmonton Oilers’ star forward Connor McDavid has been named captain of Team Canada at the 2018 IIHF World Championships in Denmark.

Ryan O’Reilly of the Sabres and Brayden Schenn of the Blues will serve as alternate captains. O’Reilly is a two-time gold-medallist at the tournament (2015 & 2016), while Schenn also won gold in 2015. Both players were members of the team that won silver last year.

McDavid led the NHL in scoring for a second straight season (108 points) and has been captain of the Oilers since the start of the 2016-17 season. He last donned a Team Canada jersey in 2016, where he racked up nine points in 10 games as Canada won their 26th gold medal at the Worlds.

McDavid has historically been dominant on the world stage, tearing apart the 2015 World Juniors to help end Canada’s gold-drought at the tournament:

Canada is in Group B for the preliminary round, along with Finland, the United States, Germany, Norway, Latvia, Denmark and Korea.

The country is icing a fairly talented roster at this year’s tournament, highlighted by Mcdavid and Islanders’ sensational rookie Mathew Barzal:

Goaltender
Darcy Kuemper (Arizona), Michael DiPietro (Vancouver) and Curtis McElhinney (Blue Jackets).

Defencemen
Thomas Chabot (Ottawa), Vince Dunn (St. Louis), Joel Edmundson (St. Louis), Aaron Ekblad (Florida), Darnell Nurse (Edmonton), Colton Parayko (St. Louis), Ryan Murray (Columbus) and Ryan Pulock (New York Islanders).

Forwards
Mathew Barzal (New York Islanders), Anthony Beauvillier (New York Islanders), Jordan Eberle (New York Islanders), Josh Bailey (Islanders), Pierre-Luc Dubois (Columbus), Bo Horvat (Vancouver), Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton), Brayden Schenn (St. Louis), Jaden Schwartz (St. Louis), Ryan O’Reilly (Buffalo), Tyson Jost (Colorado) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Ottawa).

Canada opens the tournament against the USA on Friday morning at 10:15 AM EST. The game can be seen on TSN.