McDavid - 20/21 vs. Crosby 10/11

[daver]

NHL Stats

McDavid's PPG of 1.77 is 53% better than the average PPGs of the other Top 20 scorers

McDavid has in on 52% of the Oiler goals. The PPGs of the next best scorers on the Oilers:

Draisaitl - 1.51
Barrie - 0.91
Nugent - Hopkins - 0.74
Nurse - 0.74
Yamamoto - 0.48

NHL Stats

Crosby's PPG of 1.67 is 50% better than the average PPG of the other Top 20 scorers

Crosby was in on 53% of the Pens goals. The PPGs of the next best scorers on the Pens:

Malkin - 0.94
Letang - 0.83
Kunitz - 0.68
Goligoski - 0.46
Cooke - 0.48

Click to read more...

 

[Plural]

McDavid.

 

[bobholly39]

They're pretty close.

Crosby had more goals, and played in lower scoring year.
McDavid has more points/higher ppg - plays in a higher scoring year but also North division which has been better for offense. I don't think the North Division is as huge a factor/excuse as many others are claiming here - but it's still at least somewhat of a factor/advantage you need to consider, that we shouldn't completely ignore.

The other big difference is Malkin vs Drai. 2011 was a pretty poor year for Malkin, so Crosby was a 1 man show. This year Drai has been absolutely amazing, and so it helps McDavid a lot more with that high-end 1-2 punch.

Based on all of the above I'll vote Crosby. But it's close enough and McDavid has been amazing enough, that if you give it a few more games, or even till season end, good chance I might change my vote. It's close

 

[daver]

They're pretty close.

Crosby had more goals, and played in lower scoring year.
McDavid has more points/higher ppg - plays in a higher scoring year but also North division which has been better for offense. I don't think the North Division is as huge a factor/excuse as many others are claiming here - but it's still at least somewhat of a factor/advantage you need to consider, that we shouldn't completely ignore.

The other big difference is Malkin vs Drai. 2011 was a pretty poor year for Malkin, so Crosby was a 1 man show. This year Drai has been absolutely amazing, and so it helps McDavid a lot more with that high-end 1-2 punch.

Based on all of the above I'll vote Crosby. But it's close enough and McDavid has been amazing enough, that if you give it a few more games, or even till season end, good chance I might change my vote. It's close

FWIW,

Drai - 53 points (85% of McDavid's total), 31 point shares with McDavid (50% of McDavid's points)

Malkin - 32 points (49% of Crosby's total), 21 point shares with Crosby (32% of Crosby's points)

 

[Adamantoise]

Gimme Mcdavid. Crosby had a very high sh%, so I find what Mcdavid is doing more impressive.

Cant fault anyone for picking Crosby.

 

[daver]

Gimme Mcdavid. Crosby had a very high sh%, so I find what Mcdavid is doing more impressive.

Cant fault anyone for picking Crosby.

Wouldn't it make sense to point out that Crosby's Goals per game was absolutely dominant that season than point out his sh%?

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Crosby did this against the nhl not the chl. Crosby ainec

 

[McFlash97]

McDavids Corsi and totals are more impressive. 97 is having the better offensive season.

 

[Adamantoise]

Wouldn't it make sense to point out that Crosby's Goals per game was absolutely dominant that season than point out his sh%?

I just think that looking at the underlying metrics Mcdavid is playing a more dominant brand of hockey while Crosby was shooting at an unusual clip.

Granted, you can adjust for weaker division, but I still think Mcdavid. But its close for sure.

 

[ricky0034]

the one playing the partial season with a shooting percentage around his career average instead of 6% higher than it

 

[authentic]

This is one I'll wait until the 41 game mark to decide. It's that close.

 

[filinski77]

Pretty hard to compare IMO. The North this year has about 7% higher scoring than the NHL did in 2010/2011, plus the NHL is extremely volatile this year since McDavid is playing the same 6 teams over and over, so it’s impossible to say with any certainty if McDavids results are from his progression as a player, or due to him making the most out of an extremely odd situation.

At the end of the day, McDavid likely plays 100% of the season whereas Crosby played 50%. That makes me lean McDavid, but I still want to see if he can actually maintain his pace and dominance over his peers in an actual full season (and not with intradivisional play only).

 

[Regal]

It's close. McDavid has better underlying numbers at ES, but Crosby was the better ES scorer, and with Malkin hurt/not as good as usual, the PP wasn't as good as Edmonton's has been where McDavid gets Draisaitl on his game. Credit part of that to McDavid but I think part of it is circumstance as well. I would say Crosby's scoring was more impressive, and I think he was ultimately slightly more valuable for those games than McDavid has been, but McDavid's numbers look more sustainable and he's probably playing "better" in terms of who would be more likely to be more valuable if they played their games over again.

 

[Steven Toast]

Crosby had a ppg of 1.61 in 10/11.

 

[SotasicA]

Crosby was always much more than just points. Just a complete hockey player. Really annoying how good he was/is defensively.

 

[ESH]

“McDavid plays in the North division” is such a tired, lazy argument. Part of the reason the North division has so many goals is because McDavid is so dominating.

 

[Adamantoise]

“McDavid plays in the North division” is such a tired, lazy argument. Part of the reason the North division has so many goals is because McDavid is so dominating.

McDavid has 50% more points than the 2nd highest non-teammate scorer in the North Mitch marner who has been a ~1.2 p/gp player for the last several years. The division inflates scoring by a few % at most, its insane to deny his dominance at this point.

 

[Hisch13r]

Drai has helped McDavid this year more than Malkin helped Crosby. Crosby.

 

[MartinS82]

Gimme Mcdavid. Crosby had a very high sh%, so I find what Mcdavid is doing more impressive.

Cant fault anyone for picking Crosby.

So...having a better shooting percentage is actually HURTING Crosby? I don't understand the logic that being more efficient is a ngegative.

 

[authentic]

 

[ChiefWiggum]

On face value, it is clearly McDavid based solely on offensive production. His offensive skill-set is well above Crosby's.

However, once you get into the "degree of difficulty" assessment, some adjustments need to be made to McDavid.

1) This North division is very high scoring
2) Draisaitl this year > Malkin in 2011
3) Crosby's game is more well rounded as his better defensive and faceoff abilities must be factored in.

Once these adjustments are made, it is a very close race. I went with McDavid.

 

[Gurglesons]

McDavid is likely finishing the season so it has to be McDavid.

Also wouldn’t the more sensible comparison be 2013 Sid and 2021 McDavid?

 

[McFlyingV]

So...having a better shooting percentage is actually HURTING Crosby? I don't understand the logic that being more efficient is a ngegative.

That argument is pretty simple to understand. It's stating that a higher shooting % was never the norm for Crosby as he never repeated such a feat. As someone who watches hockey you should be quite familiar with bounces and puck luck. This shows that Crosby's goal scoring that year was largely boosted by puck luck, which isn't really a criticism given that he was on pace for 64 goals.

On the topic of this thread, I think if McDavid can keep his pace and finish in that 95-100 point range it will be him as he did it over a larger sample. With that said, it's really unfortunate that we were robbed of Crosby's full season and a few years of his prime because I remember him just toying with the league that year, much like McDavid is toying with the league now.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

That argument is pretty simple to understand. It's stating that a higher shooting % was never the norm for Crosby as he never repeated such a feat. As someone who watches hockey you should be quite familiar with bounces and puck luck. This shows that Crosby's goal scoring that year was largely boosted by puck luck, which isn't really a criticism given that he was on pace for 64 goals.

On the topic of this thread, I think if McDavid can keep his pace and finish in that 95-100 point range it will be him as he did it over a larger sample. With that said, it's really unfortunate that we were robbed of Crosby's full season and a few years of his prime because I remember him just toying with the league that year, much like McDavid is toying with the league now.

Crosby's shooting percentage was higher than usual, but it actually wasn't much higher than his best goal scoring years when he won the Rocket. He shot 19.9% that year, but shot 17.1% the previous year and shot 17.3% in 2016-17 when he won his second Rocket. So while it's likely not sustainable year to year, Crosby does have a tendency to shoot a high percentage in years where everything's clicking for him. He did so two other times over full seasons.

As far as the comparison between the two, it's difficult because -- knock on wood -- McDavid likely plays this full year, while Crosby's got cut short so we don't know if he'd have kept up the pace, improved the pace, or fallen off the pace.

The only thing I'd say is that year wasn't as high scoring as this one. With Crosby injured, the scoring title ended up being won by a guy with 104 points. No one else scored 100 that year. In comparison, this year there's multiple guys on pace for 100+ points and even removing McDavid, whoever wins the Art Ross will pace for more than 104 points.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

That argument is pretty simple to understand. It's stating that a higher shooting % was never the norm for Crosby as he never repeated such a feat. As someone who watches hockey you should be quite familiar with bounces and puck luck. This shows that Crosby's goal scoring that year was largely boosted by puck luck, which isn't really a criticism given that he was on pace for 64 goals.

On the topic of this thread, I think if McDavid can keep his pace and finish in that 95-100 point range it will be him as he did it over a larger sample. With that said, it's really unfortunate that we were robbed of Crosby's full season and a few years of his prime because I remember him just toying with the league that year, much like McDavid is toying with the league now.

McDavid is toying with 6 teams in a division (yes he'd win the ross in any division or a normal season too). Crosby was toying with the league.