Captain Connor has arrived.

The Edmonton Oilers introduced Connor McDavid as the 15th captain in team history on Wednesday. At 19 years and 266 days old, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history, surpassing Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (2012) and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (2007) by a matter of weeks.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and off-season addition Milan Lucic will serve as Edmonton’s alternates. The Oilers did not name a captain last season; Andrew Ference filled the role from 2013 through the 2014-15 season.

“I’m very humbled and honoured,” McDavid told reporters. “The list of guys who have worn the C here in Edmonton is unbelievable.”

Oilers coach Todd McLellan broke the news to his team on Wednesday morning. McLellan said he knew McDavid was ready to lead, even with just a handful of NHL games under his belt, the February night he returned from a three-month injury absence and took charge with The Goal.

McLellan also got a three-game preview of McDavid in a leadership role when he named McDavid captain of Team North America at the recent World Cup of Hockey. The Under-24 stars did not advance in the tournament, but everyone liked what they saw, including Nugent-Hopkins.

“Even there, he was one of the younger guys,” Nugent-Hopkins told reporters. “The great thing that I saw from him was he didn’t change his attitude. He didn’t change the way he carried himself or the way he acted.”

McDavid, who also has the fewest games of NHL experience of any player named a team captain, said leading Team North America was “almost even more difficult of a job than this” because he didn’t know the entire roster, aside from a brief training camp.

“This doesn’t feel overwhelming at all,” McDavid told reporters Wednesday. “I just feel very normal about it. I’m very humbled to wear it. There are so many good leaders in this room. To be able to represent that, it’s definitely a good feeling.”

Humble is a word almost all of McDavid’s teammates used to describe him on Wednesday. It was the trait Lucic first noticed in McDavid upon his arrival in Edmonton.

“When you have his ability, you tend to think that guys can be cocky or arrogant,” Lucic told reporters. “He’s the opposite of that. He’s a humble kid. He doesn’t put himself above anyone else because of his abilities. I think that’s what makes him such a good leader.”

McDavid admits he won’t be the most vocal player in the Oilers’ sparkling new locker room. Instead, he plans to lead by example, allowing his play to do the talking.

“I’m not the big rah-rah type of guy,” McDavid told reporters. “I think I’m a guy that can relate to everyone and I’m fairly close with everyone on the team. I try to bring guys together and everything like that.”

That type of leadership style can work, Lucic said. Lucic has played nine NHL seasons, but only under two captains. Neither Zdeno Chara in Boston nor Dustin Brown in Los Angeles was an overly vocal leader, Lucic said.

He said the humility McDavid brings is important for a franchise charting a new course in a new home. While still a proud franchise with a championship history from the glory days of the 1980s and early 90s, this fall might finally bring some much-needed on-ice success after a decade without postseason hockey. The hope is McDavid will be the superstar at the forefront of a new era.

“Him bringing that humble presence to the room will help everyone stay humble and realize that we’re all just here to do a job,” Lucic told reporters. “We’re all just people and we’ve all got to be good people at the end of the day for this to be fun and for this to work.”

McDavid’s promotion is another reminder that the NHL is rapidly becoming a league where young players are relied on more than ever. The Maple Leafs, for instance, may eventually follow in the path of the Oilers and name one of their young stars as captain, whether it is Morgan Rielly or Auston Matthews, a year from now.

“The league is changing a bit with the talents of players coming in,” Eberle told reporters. “[McDavid] is a one-in-a-lifetime player. He’s got a high respect level from [opponents] already just playing half a season and a World Cup.”

Last year, McDavid became the first player to be voted on the TSN Top 50 players list without playing a single NHL regular-season game. He met those high expectations, even when limited by injury. The Oilers and all of Edmonton expect the same in the years to come, this time with one extra letter on his jersey.

“It’s a big day for him and this organization,” Lucic told reporters. “Everyone should be proud. I know he’s going to do the job that’s going to lead this team in the right direction.”

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli