Edmonton Oilers: How Amazing Connor McDavid Really Is

The Edmonton Oilers have one of the brightest young stars in the National Hockey League in Connor McDavid.

The first-overall draft pick is among a huge group of stars this season, including the rise of Max Domi, Dylan Larkin, Jack Eichel and even Artemi Panarin.

With these rookies brings an entire new generation of hockey, led of course by the rise surrounding McDavid. So, for fun, and for comparisons, we are going to compare Connor’s performance – which has been nothing but impressive in just 31 games played – with that of other former stars from their rookie debuts.

Let’s first look at McDavid’s season, which, I remind you, has only consisted of 31 games this season. In that time, he has 13 goals and 21 assists, and has a .42 GPG, .68 APG and a 1.10 PPG. He leads all NHL rookies in that category, and only trails Patrick Kane for the league lead in this statistic.

McDavid vs. Sidney Crosby

In 2005, it was Crosby who was the first overall draft pick. Of course, Alex Ovechkin was the first one to be drafted a year earlier, but because of the lockout, they would be pit against one another in their first year. This kind of replicates today’s rivalry between McDavid and Eichel.

Crosby was dubbed “The Next One” by many magazines, and was hyped to be the second coming behind Wayne Gretzky. Kind of like how McDavid is said to be the next Great One today, Crosby was under a lot of pressure. However, contrary to Connor, he got to play all 82 games.

In those games, he scored 39 goals and 62 assists to skate off with a grand total of 102 points. He also produced .48 goals per game and .78 assists per game. He finished with a 1.26 points per game.

McDavid vs. Alex Ovechkin

The hype surrounding Alex Ovechkin was huge, especially with Crosby pitted against him. He didn’t have the title “The Next One,” but quickly, after striking twice in his NHL debut, he was soon dubbed “The Great Eight.”

Arguably having one of the greatest rookie seasons, and outdoing Crosby, he became a quick favorite. And, since finishing with 52 goals and 54 assists in his first year in the NHL, he put up .64 GPG, .67 APG and 1.31 PPG.

Sure, he and McDavid are two completely different players, but it is still incredible to see McDavid putting up numbers close to this Russian scoring machine.

McDavid vs. Patrick Kane

This is one of my favorite side-by-side comparisons, considering the only person this season with a better PPG than McDavid is Kaner himself. The 2007 first-overall pick finished with 21 goals and 51 assists with all 82 games played.

He scored .29 goals per game, .62 assists per game and .88 points per game. Kane raised the bar this season, thanks to the help of Jonathan Toews and a Stanley Cup championship team, scoring a career-high 89 points through this season.

McDavid vs. Steven Stamkos

Stamkos is probably one of the last NHL elite first-overall draft picks to come into the National Hockey League with hype and a chip on his shoulder. His rookie campaign, he split the goals and assists at 23 a piece, and finished with .29 GPG and .29 APG, along with .58 PPG.

The Bottom Line

McDavid is having an unbelievable rookie campaign. In recent years, as seen with picks like Nail Yakupov and Nathan MacKinnon, the first-overall picks haven’t been able to live up to their hype and become the next big thing in hockey.

In McDavid’s case, it is so impressive that he is going to serve as a catalyst in the new generation of hockey. As seen in just 31 games, he is able to keep up with around the same pace as Crosby could in 2005, a time where it was much easier to score. Rules weren’t changed around, pads weren’t as huge and there was more freedom to skate and stickhandle.

Not to mention, McDavid doesn’t have another elite NHL player by his side. He plays on a line with Jordan Eberle and Yakupov, and only played with Taylor Hall when the season first started (the two did not seem to hit it off). Usually, he played with Benoit Pouliot as well. Crosby had Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and a huge arsenal of great players, then following with Evgeni Malkin a year after his rookie campaign. Ovechkin had Dainus Zubrus, Brooks Laich and many other elite players, then got to work with Victor Kozlov, Sergei Federov, Nicklas Backstrom and now, T.J. Oshie. Kane had Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook to help him out. Stamkos had Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and a whole elite squad behind him. Just look at that and tell me you’re not amazed.

If you just watch him play, you see a new ability: his speed combined with his amazing hands and skill. He is fast-moving and is able to make plays on the fly, and if he needs to strip someone of the puck, he can do it without even thinking. The way he can get the puck to the net as quickly as possible is breathtaking.

What’s even more amazing is realizing what could have been made of this rookie campaign if he had played all 82 games. WGR sports said that if McDavid had played 82 games, he would have probably scored at least 90 points in his rookie campaign. Oilers commentators pointed out that with McDavid, a player like Eberle would be on pace for 24 goals without him, and with him, he’d be on pace for 60.

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The impact this 19-year-old has made is just unbelievable. It is going to change the game of hockey, and it is just simply sensational. We haven’t seen a player like him since Alex Ovechkin.