Any chance that McDavid could be the GOAT?

[mw2noobbuster]

Sorry, but this is such a weak position.

Your argument would have some weight if McDavid came out the gate and won every scoring title at the bare minimum. It completely falls apart because he doesn’t dominate his peers in any comparable way to any of the Big Four, let alone Gretzky.

Hope you have the same enthusiasm when players 30-40 years from now will be defined as half-cyborgs and the same tired stance is trotted out about how if you teleported them back to the 2010s-2020s, they would rip the league apart.

Or you might realize how pointless such an argument is.

He won the Hart and the Art Ross in his second season. Wut?

 

[Video Nasty]

He won the Hart and the Art Ross in his second season. Wut?

*posted how McDavid hasn’t won every scoring title since starting his career like Gretzky, gets a response of how he won a Hart and Art Ross in year 2 and a “wut?”*

Gretzky won the Hart each of his first 8 seasons, while adding 5 Pearsons (let’s not forget that he wasn’t given a Pearson during a season he set the assists and points record again while lapping Mario by 74 points because players were tired of voting for him) and 7 Art Rosses during the same timeframe (he lost the goals tiebreaker as a rookie, otherwise it would have been 8 in a row).

Led the league in assists for his first 13 and the other hundred ways he flexed his dominance.

Forget the raw numbers, he straight up bodied the competition for a decade straight.

McDavid has had one of the best 5 year starts ever, but let’s not pretend he’s lapping the competition even a tenth of what Gretzky did.

 

[MapleLeafs77]

Crosby cracked the top 5 players in my eyes but its pretty impossible to crack that top 2 for sure.

McDavid has to go through Crosby before cracking that top 5 let alone number 1.

Personally don’t think he will beat Sid and its mostly because of cups and playoff performance.

 

[ItWasJustified]

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my least favorite thread on hfboards.

 

[CaptainCrunch67]

No Gretzky is the goat, Connor has a long ways to go to even start getting into the conversation and surpassing a guy like Howe, or a guy like Orr that revolutionized his position. There are a few that he has to surpass.

 

[nowhereman]

I have yet to see McDavid ascend to the levels of the previous generation of players (Crosby, OV, Malkin), let alone Wayne friggin Gretzky or Bobby Orr. Great, he scores pretty goals. Plenty of players have done that in the past. Now let's see him lead a team to some semblance of success, rather than just focusing on padding his stats in the regular season (with an absolutely atrocious attention to defense).

Nothing to see here, folks.

 

[DueDiligence]

Nope

 

[Maplebeasts]

Not a chance. As good as he is Wayne was better by a country mile, let alone Mario, Orr, Howe and maybe Sid.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Gretzky is clearly the GOAT but watching McDavid's goal vs Vancouver looks like a cheat code.

Could McDavid still be the most skilled player to ever play in the NHL at the same time as not being close to the greatest player? Or would that make him the best?

It took you until a goal against Vancouver this season to realize he scored goals on the norm like this!

anything is possible, doubt he will be the best ever because Gretzky is literally untouchable as for being my the most skilled, maybe I mean players in this era have better training, information, strategic studies, everything has improved in this day and age to make athletes more skilled. If the guys back in the day had that I’m sure they would of been too.

he’s the best player in the league and I know
Mackinnon can go beast and all but Connor stands alone. I mean there are a few players who already have had better careers then Mackinnon, who didn’t even hit 60 points more then once until his fifth season, Connor hasn’t had a season where he hasn’t scored 100 pts if he plays fifty games at least. It’s not even close I’m not
Trying to rip on Mack, hes the second best center I’m just using that tidbit to illustrate Connor stands alone tier wise but the others like Mack are close.

 

[Kofi Annan]

Good player but unable to find chemistry with any of his wingers. Even Nuge looked much better with Draisaitl.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

*posted how McDavid hasn’t won every scoring title since starting his career like Gretzky, gets a response of how he won a Hart and Art Ross in year 2 and a “wut?”*

Gretzky won the Hart each of his first 8 seasons, while adding 5 Pearsons (let’s not forget that he wasn’t given a Pearson during a season he set the assists and points record again while lapping Mario by 74 points because players were tired of voting for him) and 7 Art Rosses during the same timeframe (he lost the goals tiebreaker as a rookie, otherwise it would have been 8 in a row).

Led the league in assists for his first 13 and the other hundred ways he flexed his dominance.

Forget the raw numbers, he straight up bodied the competition for a decade straight.

McDavid has had one of the best 5 year starts ever, but let’s not pretend he’s lapping the competition even a tenth of what Gretzky did.

But mcdavid played only 48 games or whatever in his first season, every other season when he’s been healthy he scored 100 pts in this era which is nutty. I’m just adding this fact I’m not disagreeing with you, IMO Gretzky is untouchable.

 

[DueDiligence]

Once he scores 92 in a season, i will be inclined.

How about once he wins the scoring title with 75 more points ( 0r 70% more) than the 2nd place finisher? Gretzky did that in the 86-87.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

How about once he wins the scoring title with 75 more points ( 0r 70% more) than the 2nd place finisher? Gretzky did that in the 86-87.

That's a better indicator. That's unbelievable.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Good player but unable to find chemistry with any of his wingers. Even Nuge looked much better with Draisaitl.

yeah that mcdavid guy who’s just ‘good’ with almost half a thousand points already really lacks chemistry, it’s not like draisaitl dorsent benefit playing next to the best player in the world on those overtime’s all those 3 in 3) 4 on 3, power play goals, or even on the line together at times. Obviously he’s great and mcdavid benefits because of drai when in the PP or with him too but mcdavid was always insane In Junior with the 4-5 point nights regularly.

and what are you basing nugenthopkins playing better with draisaitl on? And how is it relevant to how good Connor is?some players excel with certain players. It dorsent mean the player (97 in this case) is Inferior or as you called it just ‘good’ because he doesent maintain the same level of chemistry as the other.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

That's a better indicator. That's unbelievable.

My favourire Gretzky stat is he leads the league in goals scored and if you take all of them away, he’s still the leagues leading scorer all time. That or the 92 goal season.

 

[Albatros]

I mean players in this era have better training, information, strategic studies, everything has improved in this day and age to make athletes more skilled. If the guys back in the day had that I’m sure they would of been too.

Wasn't a significant part of Gretzky's path to greatness about doing these things better than his peers though?

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Wasn't a significant part of Gretzky's path to greatness about doing these things better than his peers though?

sure and if you read my posts in this thread
not countering the argument. This is true too, like
He helped kurri score even though he’s still a great player, he was still significantly ahead of him and his peers, another element that made 99 stand out.

 

[34]

Nope.

 

[93LEAFS]

It would be very hard, but comparing across eras. I'll say this, he has a long road to catch Ovi and Crosby as the best player of the post-Gretzky/Lemieux era, not that he isn't capable, but a lot more has to go right than goes wrong. He has a crazy work-ethic to be the best, although, it will get interesting to see how he ages if he loses a step since so much of his game is defined by that.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Could maybe take Crosby's place at 5 behing the Big Four, but he has a lot to do before claiming this spot.
Obviously the top four is out of reach.

 

[Dellstrom]

I think the best he can manage is "Kobe tier". Clearly not as good as MJ and Lebron (Wayne and Mario), but potential top 10 all-time.

I like this comparison and agree. Can see him being among the greats but not the greatest.

 

[DueDiligence]

Depends on the criteria. If we're talking stats, then there's no way in hell, no one will ever touch Gretzky. But it's pretty obvious that if you take McDavid and place him in his era, he would put up the same stats and perhaps even more. Go watch a vintage game and see how the goalies play and then watch a goalie today, it's pretty hilarious how terrible goalies were back then. I'm pretty sure Lucic today could score 50 in a season back then.

Pure BS.
People understand that the 1980's were the most high scoring but it's insane how much Gretzky dominated the game.
In 86-87 Gretzky had 70% more points than the runner up for the scoring title. That's like McDavid scoring 102 points and the 2nd place guy would have 60 points.
Or when Gretzky scored 92 goals he had 28 more than the runner up ( 44% more)
There's lots more stats like this but the point is that the original poster should do a bit of research before they proceed with such a hot take.

 

[Turin]

Connor McDavid is not as good as Connor McDavid 3 seasons ago, so he’ll need to be the greatest McDavid of all time first.

 

[volcom92886]

Hard to be the GOAT when you arent the best player of your generation.

 

[The Shovel Penguin]

Generational talent, yes. GOAT, no.