from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

It was one of those conversations you have when you walk into your first rink of the fall. With a scout, a trainer, a GM, a player… Maybe the Zamboni guy.

They’re happening all over the National Hockey League this week.

“How was your summer?” “Play some golf?” “What lake are you at again?”

But at some point this one led to how many Edmonton Oilers players had come in early for the Captain’s skates, and from there, how many actually own homes and spend the majority of their summers here in Edmonton. It’s way up from where it used to be.

“It’s not like 10 years ago when guys were all parachuting in here at the last minute,” I said.

“We’ve got men on our team now,” came the reply. “Not boys.”

Men, not boys. We hadn’t looked at it that way.

For years in Edmonton, it’s been a bunch of kids who were supposed to take this team over the top. Along with a collection of older vets who only signed here because the Oilers paid them 20 percent more than the market should have.

But as Connor McDavid noted the other day, times have finally changed:

“There are stages to winning. Stages to every group’s maturity level. Everybody's in their prime,” began McDavid, who engaged wife-to-be Lauren Kyle this summer. “You know, it's not like we're waiting on the first round pick to have an amazing season and come save us, or get us into the playoffs — like it has been at times in Edmonton. Everybody's ready to go.”

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