The NHL Network recently ranked the top 20 Forwards in the NHL and one Oiler made the list: Connor McDavid. Because Hall is no longer an Oiler, I don’t have to spend a few hundred words laughing at his absence from the list. He’s a top 3LW in the game and I have a feeling this next year in the East is going to open a lot of eyes. But that’s neither here nor there for me right now. This space right now is about where McDavid ranks. The NHL Network currently slots him in 13th. I dare anyone to find 12 better forwards than McDavid anywhere on this planet.

Here’s the list.


1. Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
2. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
4. Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
5. Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
6. Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks
7. John Tavares, New York Islanders
8. Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
9. Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
10. Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
11. Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
12. Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
13. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
14. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
15. Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
16. Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks
17. Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
18. Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
19. Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks
20. Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals

Now, lists like these are no different than 90% of August content. It’s a subjective amusement piece. Nevertheless, anyone that saw the boy wonder play last year knows that he was the best player on the ice in almost every single game he appeared in. I think his low ranking here has nothing to do with how good he is and everything to do with how many games he played.

And I get the trepidation from people who didn’t get to see him play on a regular basis. I do. It’s wrong, but I understand the desire to give the benefit of the doubt to players who are more established. I mean, there are names that through a long period of high performance deserve to be at the top of the list. Crosby and Ovechkin, in particular, are two names that deserve to be considered among the very best Forwards in the NHL. It’s a no brainer.

Patrick Kane was always going to get a high rating based on what he accomplished last season, but despite what he did I wouldn’t have him as number 1. Still, you can hardly blame NHL Network contributors for placing him where they did. After that, I struggle to name Forwards who are better than McDavid is right now.

Edmonton was one of the poorest scoring teams in the NHL last year, ranked 26th with 199 goals for. Contrary to the myth of Edmonton’s offensive prowess, this is a team that struggled to score when Hall wasn’t on the ice. The defense ranked the worst in the NHL offensively, and that’s because they could neither stop the opposition from possessing the puck, transition it to the forwards once they did take control, or jump into the play when the puck was in the offensive zone.

Yet, despite this, Connor McDavid averaged the 3rd highest Points per game in the entire NHL at 1.07 P/GP. 48 points in 45 games as a raw rookie in the league and he kept that pace whether he was with Pouliot and Yakupov or Maroon and Eberle. The two players ahead of him in Points per game are Kane and Benn, who play on significantly superior scoring clubs. The Blackhawks and Stars as teams scored 35 and 66 more goals than the Oilers did respectively. That’s 35 and 66 more opportunities to record points because their teams were vastly superior.

But we hardly need to take relative team strength into account to see that McDavid belongs higher than 13th in the NHL. Nobody is faster with the puck than McDavid. He can stickhandle in a phonebooth. And, he has video game-like vision. He’s an electrifying player, one of the very few in the NHL that is worth the price of admission all on his own.

With a Minimum of 400 minutes 5v5 and 100 minutes 5v4 here is where McDavid ranked in various categories last year among forwards:

2nd – Points/60 5v5 (2.69)
11th – Goals/60 5v5 (1.15)
12th – Assists/60 5v5 (1.54)
3rd – Goals For/60 5v5 (3.36)
5th – Points/60 5v4 (6.68)
3rd – Assists/60 5v4 (5.25)

Offensively, McDavid walked in a couple months after his draft and was already a top 5 performing forward in the NHL both on the Power Play and 5v5. When he was on the ice, the Oilers scored at the third highest rate in the entire league despite the fact that on the whole the team was 22nd ranked in that very category (3.36 Goals For/60 for McDavid, 2.04 Goals For/60 for the Oilers in general).

13th best forward in the NHL today? That’s cute.

Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy

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