MacKinnon getting massively over rated on here. Looking at the last 2 seasons, the number show how much MacK's numbers nosedive when he is not playing with Rantanen. Before he arrived, Mack was seen as a disappointment on here and by a lot of fans.
He's fed pretty heavy OZ starts and spends over 4 min a game on average on the PP. There aren't a lot of stars in the league who get the easy minutes he does with the talent on his line that he does.
I'd take several names over him.
Rantanen's numbers without MacK are brutal as well to be fair, both expected goals/possession wise and for points (only 3 pts in a 169 minute sample size at 5v5 last season without MacKinnon). And MacK's ZSR is 63.55%, which really isn't that unusual for the deployment of an offensive center. Eichel, Malkin had very similar zone start ratios (62%), and that is only a bit less than Barzal's, Bergeron's and Crosby's. Around 57% of shifts start on the fly anyways, so over half the data at 5v5 of a player's on-ice impact that is being evaluated has nothing to do with the player's zone starts, unless it's to the extreme of Panarin's zone start ratio, for example (77.57%).
MacK is still one of the best transition players in the league, bar none, and creates so much individual offense, constantly creating shots and shot assists in a dynamic rate that warrants him being a top 4 center. I'd personally have Bergeron over MacK, but he's my #4 personally.
