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Connor McDavid makes his feelings known about $27,000,000 Toronto Maple Leafs D-man ahead of Oilers-Leafs clash

Modified Nov 20, 2024 14:18 GMT

For the first time this season, the Edmonton Oilers pay a visit to Ontario to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. This clash comes on the heels of Edmonton superstar captain Connor McDavid having reached the 1,000-point threshold in his career.

McDavid spoke about Chris Tanev on Toronto's blue line ahead of the matchup. Tanev, who is on a six-year, $27 million deal, will be tasked with shadowing McDavid.

McDavid knows Tanev well from their training together.

"Their back end has been great. (Tanev) helps a lot, he’s so solid. Yeah, they’re a good team. He’s the same guy each and every day. He has the same work ethic, we’ve been training for a while now.”

McDavid also explained it was good to see fellow Canadians excited about the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, which will take place in early February in Montreal and Boston.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement. There’s a lot of buzz about it. There are four great countries. All four teams will be really good and really deep, it’s anyone’s tournament to win.”

The Leafs and Oilers are scheduled to face off Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. EST from Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto.

McDavid and Tanev battled in the postseason last spring

Chris Tanev is in his first season with the Maple Leafs after signing a deal with the club over the summer.

He split last season between the Calgary Flames and the Dallas Stars, the latter of whom he helped advance to the Western Conference Final. The Stars fell to McDavid's Oilers, who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006.

He was excited to join a team trying to win rather than rebuild.

"That plays a role into it and family reasons and obviously coming to a good team is a big part of that. I didn’t want to leave Dallas and go to a team that wasn’t trying to win. That’s a huge reason why this happened."

So far in his first season with the Maple Leafs, Tanev has appeared in 18 games, registered three assists, and averaged 19:23 of ice time per game. He has a +1 rating.