Paxon
202* Stanley Cup Champions
I don't think its automatic because of some arbitrary rankings. I think it is extremely likely because McDavid is a much better offensive player than Mack. Outside of pure power shooting I think McDavid is better offensively at everything than Mack. One of the big ways Mack scored last year was thru his fantastic skating, well McDavid has that level of skating, plus better hands, vision, passing, etc. I think 75-80 pts is a pretty reasonable number for him to score. He certainly could dip 10 pts in either direction without it being surprising.
The only reason this kept going was I found it interesting that Zeropt had McDavid at 50-55 range, which I just can't imagine him producing at such a low rate short of a major injury.
I think 80 points is a fantastic number for him to score. That'd be the best rookie season in a long time. The last player to score more than low 60's in his rookie season was Kane with 72 in 2008. Malkin had 85 the year before. The year before that, Crosby had 102 and Ovechkin 106. Those were different times. McDavid scoring 20 points over the norm for the top rookie scorer would the most anyone could ask of him. Yeah, one would hope he'd score above the norm (say, 70 points) because he's better than all those prospects since the ones I mentioned, but situation is important as well. His linemates are either going to be guys like Moulson and Ennis vs. top competition or guys I shudder to mention vs. easier competition.