Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid is a superstar, which means that photos with fans come with the territory.

A couple of those photos recently went viral: McDavid, looked uncomfortable, as he’s hugged and gripped by strangers at airports. As candid photos with celebrities go, they were unintentionally hilarious.

On a recent episode of Puck Soup, hosted by Puck Daddy editor Greg Wyshynski and Dave Lozo of Vice Sports, we asked McDavid about these delightfully awkward encounters:

Q. What’s up with all these people hugging you in awkward pictures? It seems like most of your life is taken up by weirdoes in airports hugging you and you looking really uncomfortable about it?

MCDAVID: Well, that story is pretty stupid. I was walking into the security line and I had actually walked past them. And then they say ‘hey Connor can we get a picture?’ and I say ‘sure’ and sure enough they come up to me and start hugging me.

Both of them. Both of them were hugging me.

And sure enough there was someone who had their phone ready to take a picture. They had already turned around and were ready for the picture and took the picture before I had even realized what was going on. The whole thing lasted seven seconds and then I was out of there.”

View photos

Q. So 10 seconds later, you would have had a brilliant smile on your face and been comfortable?

MCDAVID: Well, I was with all my teammates and they thought it was the funniest thing ever. So we had a good laugh about it. But a weird looking picture for sure.

Q. Are you free and clear for airport hugs, or is there a no-hugging rule?

MCDAVID: Maybe now I’ll be a little bit more conservative. But it is what it is now.

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Listen to the full episode here. The McDavid interview is about 44 minutes into it. Get the full interview on iTunes, and subscribe to Puck Soup, here.

[PLEASE NOTE: STRONG ADULT LANGUAGE WARNING]