Connor McDavid's wife Lauren Kyle can't hide her joy as Oilers star matches Wayne Gretzky's rare feat

Connor McDavid just put his name next to Wayne Gretzky again, and it had nothing to do with a scoreboard. On Sunday, the Edmonton Oilers captain picked up his fifth Ted Lindsay Award, the trophy NHL players hand out to whoever gave them the hardest time all season.

Only Gretzky has ever won it five times before. McDavid found out while thinking he was just heading out for nine holes with his wife, Lauren Kyle.

How did Connor McDavid find out about his fifth Ted Lindsay award?

McDavid had no clue anything was coming. He was at Magna Golf Club in Aurora, Ontario, playing what he assumed was an ordinary round with his wife, Lauren Kyle. Near the ninth hole, a string of golf carts rolled up behind him, carrying his parents, his brother, and four childhood friends.

His father, Brian, carried the trophy over and handed it to him on the spot.Lauren had been in on it from the start, keeping him in the dark for days. Beforehand, she told people, "Connor just thinks that we are going to play nine (holes) and have dinner afterward. We typically do that during the week, so he has no idea what to expect. I haven't done too many surprises for Connor, but I think he's going to be really thrown off."

Once it happened, she posted the Oilers' announcement to her Instagram story with a simple "So proud" and a white heart.McDavid seemed genuinely caught off guard. Asked what the award meant coming from the players he competes against, he said, "This award, coming from the guys that you play against every single night and battle against every single night, to have them recognize me with an award like this, means so much."The numbers behind the honor aren't modest either. McDavid led the league this season with 138 points, built from 48 goals and 90 assists, and that production also earned him his sixth Art Ross Trophy. Voting players passed over Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and San Jose's Macklin Celebrini to give him the nod, which says plenty about how the rest of the league sees him right now.He'd already won the Lindsay in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, and 2022-23, so this fifth one pulls him level with Gretzky, who reached the same mark back in 1987.

It's strange company to keep, since almost everything McDavid does eventually circles back to one of Gretzky's old records anyway.For McDavid and Kyle, this was just another shared milestone in a relationship that started with a blind date in 2015 and turned into a wedding in July 2024. The hockey history is real, but so was the look on his face when he realized his in-laws and oldest friends had been planning it behind his back all along.