Will Connor Mcdavid win the Conn Smythe Trophy even if he fails in the Stanley Cup Finals?

Star Canadian hockey player Connor McDavid proves once again that there is no better hockey player in the world today. Thanks to his performances, the Edmonton Oilers have reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006, and in the last two games of the final series, he is keeping their hopes of winning the club’s most famous trophy alive.

McDavid has made NHL history several times this season

Connor McDavid is playing only his ninth season in the NHL and is already on pace to reach the 1,000-point mark in the regular season. He is currently at 982 points. His incredible productivity is reminiscent of Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky in the wild ’80s. He’s scoring at a more furious pace than, say, Jaromir Jagr or Sidney Crosby.

The proof is in the 2022-23 season, when he amassed an incredible 153 points in the regular season. It was the best feat of this millennium and while he didn’t dominate the Canadian scoring in the current season, he experienced a resurgence from scorer to passer, becoming only the 4th hockey player in history to amass 100 assists in a single season.

His dominance has been confirmed in the playoffs as well, thanks to him Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2006. In addition, he became only the third hockey player to score at least 40 points in a single playoff game. He also edged out Gretzky himself for the most assists in a single season. His 42 points on 8 assists and 34 assists is the 4th best performance in history.

McDavid has at least one more game to go to extend his point total and attack the historical high set in the 1984-85 season, when Gretzky scored an incredible 47 points on 17 goals and 30 assists in 18 games.

McDavid keeps Edmonton’s hopes alive

In addition, with his last two 4-point performances in the playoffs, he matched Gretzky’s performance from the aforementioned season. McDavid has already managed to win the regular season scoring 5 times in 9 years. In seven seasons he has broken the 100 point mark in the regular season and has won the Hart Trophy for the Most Valuable Player of the season three times.

In four seasons he was the best player of the season according to the players themselves, receiving the esteemed Ted Lindsay Award. This trophy is better remembered by those who remember him as Lester B. Pearson Award. In one instance, he also reigned as all-time leading scorer and received the Maurice Richard Trophy. He was then a member of the season’s top five in six seasons.

In the 2022-23 season, he matched Alexander Ovechkin’ s historic feat from the 2007-08 season, when he managed to win four top trophies in one season. Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Maurice Richard Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award.

A hot candidate for the Conn Smythe Trophy

In the NHL, it is an unwritten rule that the award for the best playoff player – the Conn Smythe Trophy, goes to the player from the team that wins the Stanley Cup. Only 5 times out of 58 has this trophy been awarded to the losing finalist. This season, the hottest candidates are Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, while for Edmonton it is Connor McDavid and defenseman Evan Bouchard, who is playing in the form of his life.

However, the performance of Edmonton’s captain simply cannot be overlooked and whether or not he leads the Oilers to the coveted title that fans have been waiting for since 1990, it is this skilled Canadian who should receive this award.

The scoring outbursts and the play he literally drags his unit on his shoulders is simply unmissable. Although the hockey player himself says that this is not a priority for him and his main focus is on Edmonton playing a victorious Game 7 and, like Mark Messier in 1990, leading the Canadian team to triumph from the captain’s position, this would be the icing on the cake.

Source: NHL, ESPN