The rookie phenom Connor McDavid did it again, winning his third Rookie of the Month nod. He has now taken the title in each and every full month he has played.
McDavid won for October with 5-7-12 over 12 games in the opening month. He played a single game in November before he was maimed by the Flyers. He returned in February to the tune of 5-12-17 over 14 games. He completed March with 5-11-16 in 15 games.
It’s going to be a difficult challenge for McDavid to repeat for April considering the Oilers only have 3 games scheduled this month, but I wouldn’t count him out. The Oilers are playing the Flames then the Canucks twice so anything is possible for the burgeoning superstar.
Connor McDavid is the best rookie in the NHL. It’s not even a question. The kid is already one of the best players in the entire league, rookie or veteran. Anyone who denies this probably just hasn’t seen him play. He is top three, at least, for most dangerous players in the NHL.
McDavid is the fastest player with the puck in the NHL. I say that without reservation. He can and has routinely made NHL defensemen (from plugs who can barely skate up to the Jay Bouwmeesters of the league) look like fools. We’ve seen him drive wide around players like they are standing still. We’ve seen him bank it off the boards behind defenders and blow by them on the inside like they’re standing still. If there’s a stick out of position or he knows there’s an issue with the defender pivoting he is already behind them.
I’ve never seen a kid do that. I’ve never seen anyone do that.
Then you have to talk about his vision, his shot, and his ability to strip the puck from people. Against the LA Kings he victimized Lecavalier twice, but most impressively he used Vinny’s own stick to score a goal by batting it when Lecavalier was crossing in front of his own net. He easily strips the puck from the carrier. It looks like the puck was simply meant to be on McDavid’s stick.
He has lived up to the hype in every possible way during his first NHL season. To think that he could get stronger and somehow faster over the summer is mind-blowing.
McDavid leads the Oilers and the NHL in 5v5 points per 60 minutes this season at 2.78 P/60. The next closest player is Jagr at 2.64 P/60 (wow Jagr!). McDavid leads the Oilers in 5v4 PP points per 60 minutes with 6.19 P/60 and is 7th (among forwards min 100 minutes) in the NHL.
McDavid is 4th on the Oilers in CF% with a 51.6% CF. As an 18 year old center in the NHL he is going to finish as a positive possession player. Jack Eichel, for example, isn’t a positive possession player. Neither is Max Domi or Shayne Ghostisbehere (but Ghost is very close). Given that the Oilers are below 50% CF as a team, the fact that McDavid is pushing the river is even more impressive.
It’s extremely uncommon for true rookie forwards to get time on the Penalty Kill. This year among rookie forwards with at least 30 games played, McDavid is 12th in SH TOI/G with an average of 42 seconds a game on the kill. Of those 12 rookies, only McDavid is actually less than 20 years old. Keep in mind that Ghostisbehere is a defenseman, Ghost only averages 6 seconds a game on shorthanded.
How does McDavid fare when he’s killing penalties? The other 7 Oiler penalty killers with at least 25 minutes played on the PK average 103.69 CA/60 with Cracknell the lowest at 94.93 to Korpikoski at a whopping 115.00 CA/60. Connor McDavid has a 61.54 CA/60. With a minimum of 25 minutes player 4v5, McDavid has the 3rd lowest shot attempts against per 60 minutes among all NHL forwards.
Not just are the Oilers trusting him to kill penalties, but they should probably have him doing it twice as much. He’s a wizard.
The only, and I mean ONLY, argument against McDavid winning the Calder trophy is the fact that he will finish with only 45 games played. This opens up the voters to twist themselves in a knot about what the difference is between “Best rookie… and “best rookie season….
It’s only an interesting debate if you like watching people overthink things that should be obvious. The actual wording is that the Calder should go “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League (NHL).… Who could possibly prove to be more proficient than McDavid?
Simply put, he’s the best player on the Oilers, one of the best in the NHL, and one of the best to ever enter immediately out of the CHL.
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