The McGreat One: Connor McDavid Became The 4th Fastest Player In NHL History To 1,000 Points
Codie McLachlan. Getty Images.Out of all sports, I'd say that hockey prodigies have the most amount of hype, expectations, and pressure put on them. These kids are often 14/15-years-old by the time people are already talking about them as the next "generational" superstar in the National Hockey League. These kids are still waiting for some hair to show up under their arms and there are already a thousand mock drafts having them go 1st overall in 3 years.
It's pretty impressive because, for the most part, they all go on to have some pretty remarkable careers. There are definitely a few guys who struggle for a few years before figuring it out in the NHL like Alexis Lafreniere. Very rarely do you get a kid who just never figures it out like Nail Yakupov or Alexandre Daigle. Guys like Nathan MacKinnon, Steven Stamkos, and Patrick Kane are all Stanley Cup Champs and top 100 players of all time. Auston Matthews is one of the best goal scorers the game has ever seen. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are both critical to the history of the game at this point in their careers and are as legendary as they come.
And then you have Connor McDavid.
The 4th youngest and the 4th fastest to reach the 1000 points milestone. Had he been able to get it done just 2 weeks ago, he would have been the 3rd youngest and 3rd fastest.
This is Connor McDavid's 10th season in the NHL, which is pretty hard to believe on its own. So far in his 9 seasons he's already played, he's put up 100+ points in 7 of those seasons. He missed half of his rookie year with injuries so only had 48 points in 45 games. And he had 97 points in just 64 games in the 2020 season that was cut short due to COVID. So an injury as a rookie and a global pandemic were the only things stopping him from potentially having 100+ points in every season he's ever played in the NHL.
You just think about all the expectations put onto this guy. Connor McDavid was barely a teenager before the hockey world already dubbed his as one of the next great ones. And not only has he lived up to those expectations, but he's been better than anybody could have imagined. Even without getting his name on the Cup, Connor McDavid could go on to have a top 5 career all-time if he keeps this up for another 10 years. But he's not going to have to worry about that because for guys like Connor McDavid, they always find a way to hoist Lord Stanley at least once in their career. It's only a matter of time before McDavid gets his hands on that thing.
He has all the individual awards. He'll eventually get his chance to finally play in the Olympics and could add a gold medal to his resume. The moment he finally wins that first Stanley Cup, he might be a top 3 guy to ever play the game. Imagine saying that about a 15-year-old kid right now and it actually ends up coming true. It's insane.