THE WONDER YEARS
7 years ago
It’s not really any kind of stretch to argue that Edmonton Oilers’ centre Connor McDavid, who celebrated his 20th birthday today, is one of the best two or three forwards in the NHL right now, just one day removed from his teenaged years.
With a couple of assists in a Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils, McDavid, after all, leads the Art Ross Trophy scoring race with 14-36-50 in just his second season and with only 89 NHL games in the record books. As good as McDavid has been, the best, common sense and history tells us, is yet to come. He’s just getting started.
Like the most prolific players over the last four decades – I’ll cite Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby as the most obvious examples – McDavid is hitting his 20s under a full head of steam, already a bonafide star and one of the best players in the game as he enters his prime production years and the sweet spot of his career.
When you couple McDavid’s unquestionable talent and his immediate impact with an Oiler team that looks to be on an rise to contention after a decade staggering around aimlessly, it’s pretty good bet that fans of No. 97 are going to have plenty to high-five and yell about over the next five to seven years, the prime of his career. I can count on one hand the players I’ve seen who’ve been this good this young.
PRIME TIME
As a rule of thumb – not to be confused with an exhaustive and definitive statistical study – NHL forwards generally begin their most productive offensive seasons in their early 20s and have a run of five, six or maybe seven years in prime time.
A rare few, like Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby and McDavid, are up to speed by age 20. Some remain very productive for longer stretches, than those prime five, six or seven years, even well into their 30s, but that’s the exception, not the rule. Here’s a look at the most productive seasons and corresponding ages for Gretzky, Lemieux and Crosby (in Crosby’s case, the most productive seasons to date).
THE GREAT ONE
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | S | S% |
1980-81 | 20 | 80 | 55 | 109 | 164 | 41 | 261 | 21.1 | |
1981-82 | 21 | 80 | 92 | 120 | 212 | 81 | 369 | 24.9 | |
1982-83 | 22 | 80 | 71 | 125 | 196 | 60 | 348 | 20.4 | |
1983-84 | 23 | 74 | 87 | 118 | 205 | 76 | 324 | 26.9 | |
1984-85 | 24 | 80 | 73 | 135 | 208 | 98 | 358 | 20.4 | |
1985-86 | 25 | 80 | 52 | 163 | 215 | 71 | 350 | 14.9 |
THE MAGIFICENT ONE
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | S | S% |
1985-86 | 20 | 79 | 48 | 93 | 141 | -6 | 276 | 17.4 | |
1987-88 | 22 | 77 | 70 | 98 | 168 | 23 | 382 | 18.3 | |
1988-89 | 23 | 76 | 85 | 114 | 199 | 41 | 313 | 27.2 | |
1992-93 | 27 | 60 | 69 | 91 | 160 | 55 | 286 | 24.1 | |
1995-96 | 30 | 70 | 69 | 92 | 161 | 10 | 338 | 20.4 |
SID THE KID
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | S | S% |
2005-06 | 18 | 81 | 39 | 63 | 102 | -1 | 278 | 14.0 | |
2006-07 | 19 | 79 | 36 | 84 | 120 | 10 | 250 | 14.4 | |
2008-09 | 21 | 77 | 33 | 70 | 103 | 3 | 238 | 13.9 | |
2009-10 | 22 | 81 | 51 | 58 | 109 | 15 | 298 | 17.1 | |
2013-14 | 26 | 80 | 36 | 68 | 104 | 18 | 259 | 13.9 |
Simply put, players who can dominate and challenge for a scoring title by the age of 20 are few and far between, McDavid is in some select company here. Crosby won the Art Ross Trophy at 19. Of course, we’re talking different numbers from a different era with Gretzky and Lemieux, and it goes without saying McDavid won’t approach those. Nobody will.
With 20 candles blown out on the cake, it’s going to be a helluva lot of fun to watch McDavid over these next five to seven years when he’s at the height of his powers. If McDavid wins the Art Ross Trophy this season, he’ll be the first Oiler to cop the silverware since Gretzky, who claimed it 10 times. How many might McDavid have by the time he’s done?
I’LL SAY THIS ABOUT THAT
It’s a cheap play, but I don’t have a huge issue with the elbow Taylor Hall landed to Zack Kassian’s face in the third period Thursday. What I have an issue with is Hall’s lame “I really didn’t mean to do it” explanation afterward. His reaction on the ice when Kassian came calling was worse.
“I meant to give him a nudge, not in the face but definitely give him a nudge,” Hall said. “It just wasn’t a smart play. I definitely deserved four minutes there and if I could go and take that back, sometimes your emotions get the best of you.”
A “nudge?” Nudges don’t have opponents spitting blood, as was the case with Kassian, who picked himself up after hitting the deck on the face-off play and hunted Hall down, only to have him turtle and refuse to answer the bell for the miss-deed. Hall has to man-up there, drop the leather and square up with Kassian. Turning his back and covering his face with his gloves wasn’t a good look.
I said it last night and I’ll say it again: old school rules might have seen the linesmen, ahem, concentrate on the scrums that ensued and let Kassian pull Hall out of the pile and have a little mano-a-mano time to make his displeasure known. Incident here.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TEAM 1260.
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