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Oilers say McDavid ‘ahead of schedule’ in broken clavicle recovery

Connor McDavid

Connor McDavid

AP

There hasn’t been much good news for the Oilers lately -- Connor McDavid’s hurt, Nail Yakupov’s hurt, they’ve lost seven of their last nine -- so what GM Peter Chiarelli had to say on Thursday qualified as very welcome news.

“He’s ahead of schedule,” Chiarelli said of Connor McDavid and his broken clavicle, per Sportsnet. “He’s been in the pool, been lifting weights… There are no soft tissue injuries, which is important.

“When you get a break like that, oftentimes there is accompanying soft tissue injuries. That slows down the recovery.”

McDavid, who suffered the injury on Nov. 3 against Philly, was originally supposed to be sidelined until early March. But per Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, there’s cautious optimism the star rookie could be back in the Edmonton lineup by “mid-to-late January.”

But even with that cautious optimism, there’s still a long way to go.

McDavid has yet to resume skating and is still at his parents’ home in Newmarket, Ontario. That said, he’s expected to join Edmonton soon -- when the Oilers take on the Leafs in Toronto on Monday -- and, according to Chiarelli, will want to get back onto the ice way sooner than expected.

“I can tell you that when it comes time,” he said, "[McDavid] is going to want to come back a lot earlier than what we forecast internally.”