Stanley Cup Finals preview: McDavid’s milestones and this season’s top moments

The Stanley Cup Finals are fast approaching. It doesn’t start until Saturday night, but there are a few things you shouldn’t miss. And we’ll start with nothing less than Connor McDavid. Here are ten stats that give you a glimpse of what this hockey player has already accomplished in the NHL.

McDavid is one of only three players in league history to average over 1.5 points per game in his career. He averaged 1.52 in the regular season and 1.58 in the playoffs, with a minimum of 10 games played. In this respect, he competes with two greats – Wayne Greztke (1.84) and Mario Lemieux (1.61). And he is just a hair ahead of his current teammate Leon Draisaitl (1.57).

McDavid has 126 assists in 2023-24 (100 in the regular season, 26 in the playoffs), one of only 10 times in history that a player has recorded more than 125 assists in a single season, including the playoffs. The other nine have … Wayne Gretzky.

McDavid’s next point moves him into 99th place in NHL history (including playoffs). In the regular season alone, McDavid has 982 points (645 GP), which is the best among all players since the 2013-14 season – even though he didn’t make his league debut until two years later. He is on pace to become the 99th player in NHL history with 1,000 points in the regular season. He could also become the third-fastest player to reach that goal, behind Wayne Gretzky (424 games played) and Mario Lemieux (513 games played).

McDavid has never played more than three games without a point in his NHL career (both regular season and playoffs). The last time he failed to score in two consecutive playoff games was in 2021. Since then, he’s held a 48-game point streak.

In November 2023, McDavid was as high as 131st in NHL scoring. But then he scored 122 points in his last 65 games and finished third in the Art Ross Trophy race. This is the first time since his rookie season (2015-16) that he finished outside the top two spots.

McDavid has more playoff games with 3+ points (16) than 0 points (15). More than half of his playoff games were multi-point games (51%; 34 of 67 games played); he scored more than once in more than half of the playoff games he entered (51%; 34 of 67 games played). He has a similar ratio in the regular season (47%; 300 out of 645 games).

McDavid has eight consecutive seasons with more than 100 points, including the 2016-17 playoffs. And he’s one of only four players in league history to accomplish that feat after Wayne Gretzky (15), Jari Kurri (8) and Mike Bossy (8).

In the 2022-23 season, McDavid scored the point that clinched his fifth career Art Ross Trophy on March 14 – 31 days before the end of the regular season. He finished that regular season with 153 points, largely because he had more multi-point games (45) than games with one or fewer points (37).

In the 2023-24 season, McDavid (32-100-132 in 76 games) became the seventh player in NHL history to score more than 130 points twice in a row. At the start of the 2023-24 season, he surpassed the 160-point mark for the second time in his career, including playoffs, joining Wayne Gretzky (10 times) and Mario Lemieux (five times) as the only players in NHL history to do so.

Since the 2015-16 season, McDavid has accounted for 44% of his team’s regular season goals. The only player in NHL history to account for more than one percent during his tenure with a club is WayneGretzky (48% in Edmonton from 1979-80 to 1987-88).

Source: NHL