Do you think there's another gear for Connor Mcdavid? (points wisely)

[Artorius Horus T]

123 points
116 points
108 points
105 points
100 points

all above are great numbers but...

considering how insane fast skater he is and his skill level,
anyone still expect him to rise to even higher level?
to find another (proverbial) gear

I have waited tbh, when he starts to hit 130+ 140 point seasons
or even more, that has yet to happen, anyone think it will?

Click to read more...

 

[JellyRamp]

i could definitely see him kicking it up into top gear for a season or two

 

[KevinRedkey]

He put up a 169 point pace in the playoffs last year.

Obviously harder to do over 82 games, but I think that proved he has another gear. I don't think 140 is out of the question on a career year.

Note: Scoring has gone up which doesn't hurt

 

[centipede2233]

If Kane can continue to bring it, it could happen 140

 

[KaosKommando]

I mean if he has someone who can bury his passes, then sure.

 

[Rengorlex]

Next year playing whole season with Kane I'd expect his oish% at 5vs5 to bounce back to more typical career norms. As such, over a full season I see him hitting 130+ points and could potentially flirt with 140 points.

He's getting to that age and maturity stage though where I think he will save his energy in the regular season and doesn't worry about individual milestones too much. I don't think we will see him go all-out like he did down the stretch in 2021 in the regular season anymore.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I think his last playoff performance is going to end up being what we consider peak McDavid, so no.

But I think he could still very easily break the 130 point threshold.

 

[Buck Naked]

I have waited tbh, when he starts to hit 130+ 140 point seasons
or even more, that has yet to happen, anyone think it will?

He put up 105 in 56 games. I think that's proof enough for his ability to put up 130+ seasons.

 

[nowhereman]

He put up 105 in 56 games. I think that's proof enough for his ability to put up 130+ seasons.

Those were very special circumstances. Can he do it in a normal season?

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

If he does, hockey gods help us all.

I think the normal ebbs and flows of a season are what keeps him from putting up 150 but I could see an upcoming season or two of him flirting with 140, dude is high flying in his prime on a good offensive team in a mediocre division.

 

[Buck Naked]

Those were very special circumstances. Can he do it in a normal season?

Well, even discounting for special circumstances and 130+ doesn't seem that far fetched.

 

[thadd]

In the regular season?
Hell yes!
We saw it in the playoffs.
McDavid was playing hockey on a level we haven't seen anyone play since the 90's.

 

[Regal]

Well, even discounting for special circumstances and 130+ doesn't seem that far fetched.

Especially when he was 7 away this year while missing 2 games and having a poor on-ice shooting percentage at 5v5. If you’re putting up 123 in 80 in a season where you didn’t have everything go right, you’re definitely capable of 130+ if everything does.

 

[Buck Naked]

Especially when he was 7 away this year while missing 2 games and having a poor on-ice shooting percentage at 5v5. If you’re putting up 123 in 80 in a season where you didn’t have everything go right, you’re definitely capable of 130+ if everything does.

Yup. Very true!

 

[bobholly39]

A year ago he put up a ~150 point pace in a shortened season....and fell flat come playoffs
Last year he had a great season, but seemed to pace himself a lot more ended up with "only" 123 points....and then absolutely historic playoff performance.

if I'm McDavid - good chance I'm aiming to repeat path #2 vs path #1. Does he have it in him to go all out and blow past 123 points, and maybe even reach ~130-140+? I think it's possible. But I think until he finds playoff success, he may not necessarily go all out though, and try to ensure he's instead fully fresh for playoffs.

 

[Video Nasty]

I still think he has a 130 point season in him. Possibly even 140 points if scoring continues to trend upward.

No matter how one slices it, it should still be doable. His career average is currently 117 points/82 games. This total factors in the first 168 games of his career where he scored 194 points for "only" 1.155 PPG or 95 points/82 games.

His PPG in his past 4 seasons is 1.586 PPG or 130 points/82 games. We can stretch back into the second half of the 2017-2018 season which is really when he starting scoring at a 1.5+ PPG clip when he finished with 62 points in 41 second half games.

He's in the midst of a consecutive stretch where he has played 319 out of a possible 332 games (96% of available games) and scored 503 points. That's 4 full seasons worth of scoring at 1.577 PPG or 129 points/82 games.

Even if one wants to be petty and remove his entire 2020-2021 campaign of 105 in 56, we're still talking about 398 points in 263 games for 1.51 PPG or 124 points/82 games.

I don't think it's far-fetched to think McDavid can pick up an extra 5-10 points on either his averages or actual raw point totals to nab 130 points sometime over the next 1-3 seasons (through his age 28 season). This all assumes continued good health of course.

Either way, I'm enjoying his 6 season run of winning the Art Ross 4 times and finishing runner up 2 times. Other than health, this should continue for at least another 4-5 seasons.

 

[Hockeyholic]

He needs to shoot more. I think he's fully capable of winning a Rocket or two during his career.

So the answer is yes.

 

[Video Nasty]

He needs to shoot more. I think he's fully capable of winning a Rocket or two during his career.

So the answer is yes.

While I agree with this, how many more shots are we talking? He had 314 in 80 games this past season. That was enough for 5th in the league and only 20 less than traditional volume shooter Ovechkin in 3 more games.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I voted "yes" because his next gear is to get through an entire season at the ~160 pace that we have seen from him in month-long spurts.

Even if he can't run through the entire schedule at that pace, playing that way consistently could get him to 130 or 140. Those would be astonishing numbers in a modern context -- outside of the high-scoring era 1981-1996, only one player has ever broken 140 and that guy was playing with Bobby Orr against expansion teams.

 

[BlueBaron]

It's not hard to imagine that if they added another superstar his numbers could go up. With his current group there might be a little room but just staying the same is pretty nice at his level. It may also have been a career year. We'll see. Keeping Kane didn't hurt.

 

[ricky0034]

his even strength on ice shooting percentage was at a career low this year and his on ice shooting percentage on the powerplay was below his career average as well

he can definitely hit 130-140 next year if league scoring stays up and he plays the whole season

 

[Larry Hanson]

If he has a generational year he might just beat Kucherov

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I don't see what could be the next level. He already plays about as much as you can play a forward. He's playing in an era that is high scoring. He's playing in an era with bad goaltending. He plays right now in probably the most high-scoring and weakest division. He's not required to play that much defense, although it's true his defensive numbers looked better last season. He's not Wayne Gretzky. He's not going to all of a sudden score 165 points. Not happening.

 

[jimmysheva]

If they secure 1st place in Pacific, no point going all out the rest of regular season.

 

[EverTheCynic]

Sure. Why not?