The NHL’s 1,000-point club has its 99th member.
Connor McDavid became the fourth-fastest player in league history to reach the millennium mark on Thursday and it fittingly came on a connection with Leon Draisaitl.
So many of McDavid’s first 999 points in the league came passing the puck to Draisaitl and point No. 1,000 saw the captain convert on a one-timer much like the one his teammate is famous for. Darnell Nurse moved the puck quickly up the ice following a turnover, the duo sprung into the zone on a two-on-one, and McDavid made no mistake, snapping the pass from Draisaitl into a wide-open net.
The Oilers cleared the bench to celebrate the milestone with McDavid and the fans at Rogers Place gave him a standing ovation. Though Edmonton has seen a handful of 1,000-point players over the years, McDavid is just the fourth to score 1,000 with the Oilers. Wayne Gretzky has the most in team history at 1,669 and Jari Kurri and Mark Messier are second and third at 1,043 and 1,034.
The 27-year-old made it to 1,000 points in only the 659th game of his NHL career. He reached the mark faster than legends such as Peter Stastny (682 games), Jari Kurri (716 games), Guy Lafleur (720 games), Bryan Trottier (726 games), Denis Savard (727 games), Steve Yzerman (737 games), Marcel Dionne (740 games), Phil Esposito (745 games), Sidney Crosby (757 games), and Jaromir Jagr (763 games). The only players ever to reach the mark faster than McDavid did are Gretzky (424 games) Mario Lemieux (513 games), and Mike Bossy (656 games).
Taken with the first-overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, McDavid has been everything as advertised as a hockey prodigy coming out of Major Junior. Through ten seasons with the Oilers, McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy five times, the Ted Lindsay Award four times, the Rocket Richard Trophy once, and the Hart Trophy three times.
His best statistical season came in 2022-23, in which McDavid scored 64 goals and 89 assists for 153 points, becoming the first player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 to break the 150-point mark in a single season. Last season was another historical campaign for McDavid, as he became just the fourth player in league history to record 100 assists in a single season, joining Gretzky, Lemieux and Bobby Orr.