This thread is the perfect example of 2 extremes. Anyone saying Drai would be a bum without McDavid or he's a PP merchant or whatever are obviously clueless. Drai is an undisputed top 5 player in the world, at worst. But anyone who thinks he's in or can be in the same tier as Crosby/OV is equally clueless. Crosby won rosses, harts, smythes, etc with random no name line mates despite always being the main focus of the opposition. OV has a 65 goal season when no one on his team even hit 70pts (43pt gap over 2nd). He has a 52 goal/106pt season when 2nd on the team had 57pts (49pt gap). Multiple other seasons leading his team by 20+pts all while throwing out ~200 hits and being the main focus of the opposition. Until Drai does things like that without McDavid, he'll never be in that tier. And no, 7 games in 19/20 don't prove anything. OV never had the luxury of a generational player doing the heavy lifting for him. Crosby had Malkin but they were on different lines and Crosby got the tough matchups. Drai is either on McDavid's wing or getting cupcake matchups behind him and obviously spends 100% of the PP with McDavid. Great player, but nowhere close to Crosby/OV level.
