Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid is known for his blistering speed — and so far this year he’s also flying up the stats leaderboard at a pace not seen since the days of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
“You just really run out of words,” his linemate Leon Draisaitl said after a 6-5 win over the usually stingy Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, during which McDavid picked up his third five-point game of the young season.
McDavid, 29, has always been elite: after an injury-marred rookie season in 2015-16, the centre has been among the league’s top scorers ever since, claiming the top spot six times, tying Lemieux and Gordie Howe and trailing only Gretzky (get used to reading that).
But so far in his 12th season he’s taken it to another level. It’s still very early — just 10 games into an 84-game season. But McDavid’s start has hockey fans and players at least asking questions about what No. 97 might be able to accomplish this season.
Is this the best McDavid has ever played?
“I feel like I get asked that a lot, and my answer’s always yes,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said after the game Thursday.
First, the straight stat line: McDavid has eight goals and 23 assists in 10 games.
How good is that? Well, he’s 10 points ahead of his closest competitor, his own linemate Leon Draisaitl. The next closest player, one not getting passes directly from McDavid, is Vegas Golden Knight Jack Eichel, who has 19 points and has also played two more games than McDavid.
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McDavid has more assists than anyone else in the league has points. And the vast majority of his assists are “real.” In hockey, you get what’s known as a secondary assist if you deliver the pass before the pass that leads to the goal.
Of McDavid’s 23 assists, only five are secondary assists, according to statistics site Moneypuck. His 18 primary assists are double the next closest player, New York Rangers defenceman Adam Fox.
Now, the pace.
McDavid’s start is record-breaking (and maybe unsustainable). McDavid is only the fourth player in league history to hit the 30-point mark in 10 games, along with New York Islanders sniper Mike Bossy, Lemieux (who did it in fewer) and, yes, Gretzky.
Whether McDavid can keep this pace up promises to be a throughline for the rest of the season:
It’s also worth noting that on his current pace he’d still beat Gretzky’s records even if he only played 80 games, which was the season length for most of The Great One’s career.
To break into the top 10 seasons of all time, which would be less historic but still impressive, McDavid would need at least 165 points to slip ahead of Gretzky’s 1980-81 season.
Gretzky has eight of the top 10 seasons; Lemieux has two.
McDavid celebrates an Oilers goal in L.A. on Oct. 13. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
It’s a tall order, but McDavid’s teammates don’t think he’s reached his pinnacle yet.
“You learn, right?” Draisaitl said. “When he was 24 he was just as flashy, just as fast, but there’s little details that maybe weren’t as great. Now his game is as complete as it gets and he hasn’t lost a step offensively.”
McDavid’s next game is against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Edmonton on Saturday.
