Death, taxes and Connor McDavid putting up points in the NHL like he's playing on rookie mode.
No one makes the game of hockey look easier than McDavid, and that hasn't changed this season. The Oilers captain has 27 points in the first 13 games of the season. He's right back atop the league's leaderboard in that category, and while it's still very early in the year, the superstar looks to be on his way to contending for a third consecutive Art Ross Trophy.
But this start has been special, even by McDavid's standards. We're used to seeing McDavid dish it more than he puts it in the back of the net, but the scoring touch has been strong for the center so far as he is up to 13 goals. And he was back at it again on Monday, once again succeeding in the "make another team's defense look foolish" challenge.
CONNOR MCDAVID ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 😱 pic.twitter.com/UGxgFCYNw9
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 8, 2022
It's easy to take McDavid's impressive production for granted. I mean, it's year after year that he's recording points at an insane level. It's more of a storyline when he isn't producing, which seems to be, well, not very often.
But still, we have to appreciate the uniqueness of McDavid whenever we can, and while it's a small sample size, we are seeing the Oilers captain produce in a different way this season than he has in the past.
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Here is a look behind the numbers at McDavid's sensational start to the 2022-23 NHL season.
Connor McDavid by the numbers
2.08
When McDavid was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in 2015, it was expected that he would be a point-per-game player in the league, at the very least. He's lived up to that hype, finishing every season with more points than games played and for the last three seasons, he has produced over a point per game.
He's taken it up a notch this year. Through 13 games, he is averaging over two points a game with 27. McDavid has points in every game except two, has posted seven multi-point efforts and has registered four points in four of those outings. Entering the Nov. 9 contest against the Lightning, McDavid has a points-per-game average of 2.08.
Is it a sustainable clip? No, not at all. The last time a player averaged over two points per game was Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, among players to record at least 50 points in one season.
But if there is anyone who could potentially do it, it's McDavid. During the shortened 2020-21 season, he had 105 points in just 56 games, ending the year with 1.88 points per game.
1.00
McDavid has always been an elite playmaker, but he constantly racks up nearly twice as many assists as goals. That's not the case this season.
So far, McDavid is producing at a goal-per-game rate with 13 goals in as many contests — putting him on a path to very easily surpass his career-high of 44 goals, which he posted last year. He has never lacked any ability in scoring goals, as he has three seasons with at least 40 goals and has potted at least 30 in each of the last six seasons. However, we haven't seen him find the back of the net like this.
Like his points per game average, the Oilers captain is not going to keep this up all season. McDavid is shooting at a 25.5 success rate, which is way above the league average of 10.0% for this season. Obviously, McDavid is by no means an average player, but his highest shooting percentage to end a season was 17.1% which came in 2018-19.
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128
McDavid set a new career-high last season, leading the league with 123 points in 80 games played. It was more than enough for McDavid to pick up his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy and surpassed his previous career-best mark of 116 points in a single season. At the rate that McDavid is producing in 2022-23, that new career-best may only last one year.
The mark that fans should have their eyes on is 128 points. During the 2018-19 season, Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov won the Art Ross by leading the league in points with 128. That is the most points this century and the most since 1995-96 when Mario Lemieux put up a remarkable 161 points.
It's highly unlikely that we'll ever see anyone top Wayne Gretzky's record of 215 points in a single season. That's just utterly ridiculous. So Kucherov's 128 points is a good milestone for McDavid to reach for.
