When the Edmonton Oilers finished with the 28th overall record in the league this season, the odds were heavily stacked against them winning the lottery and gaining the opportunity to draft Connor McDavid. Of course, Edmonton won anyways, which created a new spark in the Battle of Alberta.
The Flames can’t be happy that McDavid is now projected to play in their division, but Sam Bennett sees the appeal. The 18-year-old rookie forward and McDavid go way back as the two spent five years together with the York-Simcoe Express and then another two as members of the Toronto Marlboros.
Although they went on to play for separate teams in the Ontario Hockey League, Bennett thinks they only ended playing against each other about four times. If everything goes as projected with Edmonton drafting McDavid and both players living up to expectations, then they’ll have many more games against each other in the future.
“We’re more used to being teammates than opponents for sure,” Bennett told the Canadian Press.
“We’ve been friends for a very long time. I’ve played against him a few times, but definitely that’ll be an exciting bunch of years playing against him. That’ll be really cool.”
In the meantime, Bennett is getting ready for Game 3 in Calgary’s first round series against Vancouver (10:00 p.m. ET, NBCSN). He was hurt during Friday’s contest, but Bennett downplayed the ailment as a “bump” and said he was “100% fine” going into tonight’s contest, per the Calgary Sun.
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