I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll likely say it many times again, but we’re truly lucky to be in an era where we can watch Connor McDavid, the best player on the planet, do what he does night after night.

The Edmonton Oilers’ forward was recently named the 2025-26 winner of the Ted Lindsay Award, presented annually to the NHL’s most outstanding player as voted by his peers, earning the honour for a fifth time and tying Wayne Gretzky for the most in league history.

McDavid had an incredible campaign, recording 138 points, the second most in his NHL career, and in honour of him winning the Ted Lindsay Award for a fifth time, here are his five best games of the 2025-26 season where he was truly outstanding.

McDavid headed into the game against the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 4 facing criticism about his shot volume up to that point in the season, having only registered one shot on goal in his previous three games.

But he flipped the script in the afternoon game against the Kraken. The Oilers’ captain shot seven pucks on net, scoring on three of them, in a 9-4 shellacking of the Kraken, marking their highest goal total in a game in 2025-26.

The superstar centreman, who also added an assist for a four-point night, said after the game, “As I said before, I thought I passed a couple away the other night and ultimately cost us losing a 1-0 game.” He added, “Who knows if I score on one of those? So definitely thought about shooting a little more.”

And shoot, he did, with McDavid’s hat trick in the game being the 13th of his career, which tied Oilers legend Mark Messier for fourth-most in franchise history.

Over the last several seasons, it’s been Leon Draisaitl owning the Nashville Predators, putting a ton of goals past their netminders, but on Jan. 6, the spotlight belonged to McDavid.

The captain opened the scoring on yet another spectacular goal, entering the zone with speed on the power play that left all five Nashville players, including the netminder, standing still with their jaws dropped as McDavid tucked the puck into the net.

And Baggedmilk summarized the stunning goal at the time as  “No. 97 made half of the Predators’ penalty kill look like they’d never played the game before, including a confused Juuse Saros who had no idea what was happening.”

That said, the Oilers’ superstar scored his third goal with less than a minute to go in the game as the hats rained down at Rogers Place, recording his 14th career hat trick and passing Messier to take sole possession of fourth-most all-time in Oilers history.

Additionally, at the time, McDavid extended his point streak to 16 games, tying Denis Savard for the fourth-most 16-game (or longer) point streaks in NHL history.

The Oilers’ captain was riding a 10-game point streak with 26 points in that span, and he cranked up the heat even more against the Calgary Flames on Dec. 23 at Rogers Place.

Draisaitl had been in a goal-scoring slump, and his partner in crime helped him get off the schnide, factoring in on Draisaitl’s first goal in nine games early in the first period. That tally set the tone for the rest of the night, as McDavid put on his playmaking cap against the Flames.

McDavid recorded an incredible five assists in the 5-1 win over the Flames, and Draisaitl praised his friend after the game, saying, “The puck is following him right now. He’s just too good right now. That’s not fun to play against.”

The Oilers sent their faithful home on a high note just before Christmas, and at the time, it was also the first of three five-point nights for McDavid in 2025-26. Through 38 games, the centreman had 67 points, the most by an NHL player at that point in a season since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.

It was a back-and-forth battle when the Washington Capitals visited Rogers Place on Jan. 24. The two sides traded goals all night, but Washington held a 5-4 lead with under a minute left. But McDavid rose to the occasion, playing a key role in both the tying and game-winning goals.

With under a minute left, the Oilers’ net was empty when McDavid sauced the puck to the front of Washington’s net, where Zach Hyman buried it to tie the game late.

Then, in overtime, the recent Ted Lindsay Trophy winner emerged as the hero once again, going in all alone and beating netminder Charlie Lindgren with a nifty backhand tuck for the 6-5 OT win. Overall, the 29-year-old tallied two goals and three assists on the night, while reclaiming the NHL scoring lead at the time with 90 points (32 goals, 58 assists).

That said, it’s worth noting that while McDavid put on a magical performance, his teammate Evan Bouchard put on a historic one that night, putting up six points, including his first-ever hat trick and the first by an Oilers’ defenceman since Marc-André Bergeron in 2006.

Edmonton was on a two-game losing skid before taking on the San Jose Sharks on April 8, and in that game, McDavid’s Team Canada linemate at the Olympics, Macklin Celebrini, opened the scoring.

But the master was not going to be outshone, and the Oilers’ captain was dialled in right after, responding almost two minutes later to score his 45th of the season.

And, without Draisaitl down the playoff stretch, McDavid put on likely one of his best games of the season. He was flying throughout the game, scored two more goals, including one where he added another play to his highlight-reel package by blowing past two defenders, and turned Sharks’ netminder Alex Nedeljkovic into a meme when the cameras panned to him fishing the puck out of the net in a ‘what can ya do?’ manner.

McDavid finished the night with three goals and added two helpers, including a 60-foot pass right onto the tape of Jack Roslovic for a goal. It was one of those nights where the best player in the world had the puck on a string, as Bouchard said of his captain after the game:

With his performance against the Sharks, McDavid recorded hat trick No. 15 in his career and his 14th five-point game.

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