It was another night, another milestone for Connor McDavid. The Edmonton Oilers captain quietly racked up three assists on Thursday, guiding his team to a 6-5 comeback win over the Montreal Canadiens at Rogers Place.
The Oilers’ record moved to 4-3-1, but the bigger story was McDavid’s steady climb up the franchise’s history books.
Can Connor McDavid Catch Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers Record?
McDavid’s performance marked the 137th time he’s had at least three points in a game, tying Jari Kurri for second-most in team history. Only Wayne Gretzky remains out of reach with a staggering 301 such nights.
Most career 3+ point performances – Player with the @EdmontonOilers franchise:
301- Wayne Gretzky
137- Connor McDavid (Via his 3 assists in tonight’s 6-5 comeback victory over the Canadiens)
137- Jari Kurri
115- Mark Messier
100- Leon Draisaitl
92- Glenn Anderson
86- Paul Coffey pic.twitter.com/nJRVRmRzUk— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) October 24, 2025
McDavid also reached 200 career multi-assist games, becoming just the third-fastest player in NHL history to do it. He hit the mark in 720 games, trailing only Gretzky (449) and Mario Lemieux (580). That’s elite company, no matter how you slice it.
This game had everything, with sloppy moments, sharp execution, and the kind of electricity that tends to follow McDavid around. Montreal jumped ahead early on an Alex Newhook rebound before David Tomasek, in just his eighth NHL game, evened things with his first career goal.
Edmonton looked in control midway through the second after goals from Adam Henrique and Andrew Mangiapane, both touched by McDavid’s stick somehow. But the Canadiens flipped the script in a hurry, burying three goals in under two minutes to grab a 4-3 lead heading into the third.
When Alex Newhook added his second of the night to make it 5-3, it looked bleak. Then Edmonton’s power play, still one of the most dangerous units in hockey, came alive. McDavid fed Leon Draisaitl for a quick-strike goal, then set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to tie it.
With 69 seconds left, Vasily Podkolzin buried a backhand past Sam Montembeault, sending the home crowd into chaos. McDavid’s three assists were the thread running through it all.
Goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped 22 shots for the win. For Montreal, Montembeault finished with 23 saves in a game that neither side will remember for its defensive structure.
Edmonton’s Captain Keeps Rewriting History
At 28, McDavid has already assembled a résumé that would make most players’ careers look modest with three MVPs, five Art Ross trophies, and a reputation as the game’s most dynamic force. But what’s striking now is how he’s starting to track down Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers-era marks, one by one.
He still has a long way to go, 164 three-point games behind Gretzky, to be exact, but the rate at which he’s climbing is astonishing. And unlike the wide-open ‘80s, he’s doing it in a defensive, analytical era where time and space are scarce.
One interesting wrinkle this season has been Edmonton’s constant tweaking of its line combinations. Head coach Kris Knoblauch hasn’t hesitated to shuffle pieces around McDavid and Draisaitl, searching for balance across all four lines. It’s led to some unpredictability, but on nights like Thursday, it worked. Depth players like Podkolzin, Henrique, and Tomasek all played key roles in the win.
The defensive lapses are still there, no doubt. But the Oilers showed the resilience that’s been missing early in the season. And once again, it was their captain setting the tone, not just chasing history, but willing his team over the line when it mattered most.
Next up, the Oilers head to the Pacific Northwest for weekend games against Seattle and Vancouver, hoping McDavid’s momentum and their late-game spark carries with them.
