Connor McDavid has reached the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career

Connor McDavid is a 50-goal scorer.

With two goals against the Boston Bruins on Monday night in Edmonton, McDavid has reached the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career.

Coming into this season, McDavid’s career-high in goals in a single season was 44, which he set last year over 80 games. His previous career-high before that was 41, which he scored in 82 games in both 2017-18 and 2018-19.

There had been 93 different players who had scored 50 goals in a season, making McDavid the 94th player ever to do so. He’s also the sixth Oiler to reach the 50-goal mark. Wayne Gretzky did do nine times, Jarri Kurri four times, Glenn Anderson twice, Mark Messier once, and teammate Leon Draisaitl has hit the mark twice in his career thus far. Craig Simpson also scored 56 goals in 1987-88, but 13 of those goals came as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins before he was traded to the Oilers.

McDavid reached 50 goals in his 61st game of the season, meaning he’s on pace to score 67 goals over the course of 82 games. That would be the most goals scored in a single season by an NHL player in the salary cap era. The only players since 2005-06 who have scored at least 60 goals in a season are Auston Matthews (60 in 2021-22), Steven Stamkos (60 in 2011-12), and Alex Ovechkin (65 in 2007-08).