mcstrome starter pack (if youve never read dylan strome x connor mcdavid, read these!)
The Next Next One by yourblues / @msmargaretmurry (M, 71k)
This is so obvious, a classic, required reading. But to omit it would be an admission of bad taste. Because this fic is goated. And we will recommend it on every single post so get ready to be sick of our blog’s namesake. Yourblues has never missed in their life but this fic is the quintessential Connor McDavid career ending injury story. It encapsulates McStrome vibes both past, present, and future; it’s informed by all the McStrome that came before it and it informs all the McStrome after it. And it’s also the fic that got us into not just McStrome, but hockey RPF to begin with, after previously being Hockey RPF antis, we read it in one sitting the first time, and one sitting on a plane the second time. The writing is paced excellently even though it’s a slowburn, it’s soulful, it’s about the horrors of being both Connor McDavid and Dylan Strome, it’s about the city of Toronto as a character (you will enter Scotiabank arena thinking: sick next next one reference).
You won’t want for more after the next next one except for more of the next next next one. You will chase the high forever. Thank you yourblues.
so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract / @postoperation (M,26k)
Addandsubtract is always at the scene of the crime. Yes, this is the 4th most kudos McStrome, but what about it? It’s because the people have taste. This was published in October of 2015, before we knew there would be tragedy, and yet this fic assumed that there would be and predicted the tone of it almost prophetically well. This pioneered the concept of Connor having a career ending injury in this ship and what does he do? Flees to Arizona and smokes a fuckton of weed of course. Dylan Strome and his singular weed smoking girlfriend with chronic pain.
The Roads You Take to Get Home by hannah_baker / @thewestishharpooners (T, 11k)
We think this is a really sweet starter fic with a recontextualized McStrome separation narrative. You have faith in their relationship, it really sells you on their they-really-wanna-be-together-but-they-can’t-be dynamic. One of the feel good McStromes!
In the plot, they get married young and Connor goes through the process of being a normal NHLer (not being a generational talent) and Dylan, who isn’t a hockey player, trying to make it work. Flashbacks between the past (where they are sweet and codependent) and the present (where they are sad).
dandelion by limitedpartnership (M, 34k)
Hanahaki disease fic. Has there ever been a ship so suited to that genre? This fic really sells you on the PINING of McStrome. A fundamental conflict of McStrome is how there is a disparity between Connor and Dylan, hockey-wise, especially early in their careers, and having hanahaki disease as a vector of this conflict punctuates that part of their dynamic. Much more to say, but we’re sure we’ll be recommending this again after a reread so…gotta save something for that.
This Year - hannah_baker (E, 48k)
Dylan Strome babysits a very depressed Connor McDavid. From this fic emerges the kind of codependence you only get in a terrible house in Edmonton. There’s physical closeness, but a separation akin to the kind that normally comes from being teammates replaced instead with professional boundaries. Your heart breaks a bit for Connor, but it feels cozy all the same. And the title is a TMG reference!
We could keep going, but at that point we’d just be going down the top kudos list and you can do that all on your own.
