McDavid's absence will be felt in youth movement, across league

It is an understatement to say that injuries happen every day in the NHL. But there aren’t too many things  that have stopped the league dead in its tracks—then blew up social media —like the injury to Connor McDavid on Tuesday night.

The storm continued to swirl into Wednesday, when Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli addressed the media to announce that the rookie phenom would be out for “months” following surgery to his broken left clavicle.

It’s a blow to the Oilers, no matter how much they insist that the 18-year-old doesn’t make-or-break their team. He is a catalyst, a driving force, the player that Edmonton has invested a wealth of hope into.

But losing McDavid to injury also has an impact on the rest of the league. And while the 2015-16 rookie class is still creating must-see hockey, McDavid's absence will be be felt.

This isn’t to say that the rest of the freshman class aren’t making waves and well worth watching. Artemi Panarin in Chicago and Oscar Lindberg with the Rangers have made contributions to their respective club’s offenses and stayed on McDavid’s heels on the stats sheet. Dylan Larkin tallied game-winning goals in consecutive tilts for the Detroit Red Wings. Netminder Mike Condon has been making big headlines for the Habs, filling in for injured uber-goalie Carey Price. Max Domi has been a bright spot for an Arizona Coyotes team combating years of not being a competitive entity. Heck, Jack Eichel hasn’t stopped grinding since he put on that Buffalo Sabres sweater. The list goes on, and the league clearly isn't void of exciting young talent.

There’s still no getting around that McDavid is the face of this season’s strong youth movement. The hype surrounding him even before he was the first overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft hasn’t slowed. The pressure of being Sidney Crosby 2.0 never let up. Of course there will be fans who watch the Oilers host the Penguins on November 6—it just won’t be the McDavid-Crosby face-off that so many were hoping to see.

Plus, while the rest of the league will miss McDavid from its TV screens, Edmonton will be missing him on the ice. Once McDavid got a couple pro games under his belt and became more comfortable, he started regularly tallying points and helping the Oilers get wins. His success was even capped off by Rookie of the Month honors for the month of October.

That youthful spark in Edmonton's skates won't be there for a while. And even with the exciting group of rookies across the league, the NHL will miss McDavid while he recovers as well.