Dave Feschuk: Connor McDavid is miles ahead of his pursuers, and the gap is growing
Maybehas been the best hockey player in the world for a long while now. Certainly he has scored more points than any other player since his much-ballyhooed NHL debut in 2015. But a season ago it was Toronto’s Auston Matthews who was votedafter the league’s first 60-goal season in a decade. McDavid wasn’t even adjudged the NHL’s best centremen last season; he was rendered a second-team all-NHLer after Matthews took first-team honours.
, McDavid had 54 goals and 124 points in 66 games. That put him on pace for a 67-goal, 154-point season., Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman have exceeded the 154-point mark in a single season. A player hasn’t scored more than 67 goals since Lemieux had 69 in 1995-96. That means McDavid has 28 per cent more points than his nearest rival, which puts him in elite company. At the height of Sidney Crosby’s dominance, when Crosby was the only NHLer to breach the 100-point mark in 2013-14, he outscored his nearest rival, Ryan Getzlaf, by a 20 per cent spread. When Patrick Kane was the lone NHLer to break into triple-digits in 2015-16 with 106 points to Jamie Benn’s second-place 89, Kane outscored Benn by 19 per cent.
As Matthews said of No. 97 a while back: “He’s obviously a freak. I don’t think there’s too many words to really describe what he’s doing and what he’s been doing. It’s been impressive to watch.”
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