Better Offensive Season: Leon Draisaitl 2020 Or Bernie Nicholls 1989?

[DitchMarner]

Which is the superior offensive season?

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[DitchMarner]

1989:

2020:

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Drai beat mcdavid for the ross and hart while bernie was decimated by lemieux by 49 points. Not even a question

 

[DitchMarner]

It's difficult to compare these seasons since the 2020 season was abruptly cut short. Hockeyreference gives each player 128 adjusted points (Draisaitl's total must be projected over 82 games). Nicholls has better domination over the guys behind him in the scoring race, but obviously it's harder to have big separation in a shorter season, and he was outscored by three players whereas Drai led the second leading scorer by a comfortable margin.

 

[DitchMarner]

We have a draw! The poll has been re-opened.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I haven't made up my mind or voted yet, but some data to consider:

Draisaitl's help from McDavid:
- ES: 22 of 66 (33%)
- PP: 32 of 44 (73%)
- SH: none
- Total: 54 of 120 (45%)

Nicholls's help from Gretzky:
- ES: 23 of 87 (26%)
- PP: 30 of 49 (61%)
- SH: 11 of 14 (79%)
- Total: 64 of 150 (43%)

Overall, Nicholls and Draisaitl collaborated with their team's best player at roughly the same rate. (There isn't a meaningful difference between 43% and 45%). Draisaitl and McDavid played together extensively on the powerplay (Draisaitl only had 8 powerplay points that McDavid didn't score or assist on). On the other hand - Draisaitl got essentially zero time on the penalty kill, while Nicholls and Gretzky were the Kings' #1 penalty killing duo (Nicholls scored 14 SH points, 11 from Gretzky - his next best season was just 7 SHP).

Taking the scoring environment into account, Draisaitl was a bit more productive, both at ES and on the powerplay. The question comes down to - how much do we want to discount Nicholls' point production while shorthanded? (On the one hand, Nicholls wouldn't have reached the 150 point milestone if he wasn't deployed on the PK. The fact that Nicholls doubled his career high in SHP, and Gretzky scored/assisted on almost all of them, tells me that Nicholls was in a fortunate situation. On the other hand, 14 SHP is a huge number. It's only been done ten times in all of NHL history, and six of them by Gretzky and Lemieux - plenty of other forwards got extensive PK time with Gretzky and nobody matched Nicholls' production).

 

[Regal]

I haven't made up my mind or voted yet, but some data to consider:

Draisaitl's help from McDavid:
- ES: 22 of 66 (33%)
- PP: 32 of 44 (73%)
- SH: none
- Total: 54 of 120 (45%)

Nicholls's help from Gretzky:
- ES: 23 of 87 (26%)
- PP: 30 of 49 (61%)
- SH: 11 of 14 (79%)
- Total: 64 of 150 (43%)

Overall, Nicholls and Draisaitl collaborated with their team's best player at roughly the same rate. (There isn't a meaningful difference between 43% and 45%). Draisaitl and McDavid played together extensively on the powerplay (Draisaitl only had 8 powerplay points that McDavid didn't score or assist on). On the other hand - Draisaitl got essentially zero time on the penalty kill, while Nicholls and Gretzky were the Kings' #1 penalty killing duo (Nicholls scored 14 SH points, 11 from Gretzky - his next best season was just 7 SHP).

Taking the scoring environment into account, Draisaitl was a bit more productive, both at ES and on the powerplay. The question comes down to - how much do we want to discount Nicholls' point production while shorthanded? (On the one hand, Nicholls wouldn't have reached the 150 point milestone if he wasn't deployed on the PK. The fact that Nicholls doubled his career high in SHP, and Gretzky scored/assisted on almost all of them, tells me that Nicholls was in a fortunate situation. On the other hand, 14 SHP is a huge number. It's only been done ten times in all of NHL history, and six of them by Gretzky and Lemieux - plenty of other forwards got extensive PK time with Gretzky and nobody matched Nicholls' production).

I think one thing to consider as well is that while Gretzky wasn’t quite at his peak offensive powers either, McDavid was clearly not 100% all year after rehabbing his knee in the offseason and was probably more reliant on Draisaitl than the other way around. This was the only season in his career where Draisaitl produced better away from McDavid 5v5, and he was at his best down the stretch while playing with RNH and Yamamoto

 

[GoldenKnight]

Drai beat mcdavid for the ross and hart while bernie was decimated by lemieux by 49 points. Not even a question

McDavid was coming off a serious, season ending injury from a few months prior and probably wasn't at his best at the start of this shortened season.

 

[Duffy13]

Has to be the most overlooked and underrated 70 goal season ever

 

[Cup or Bust]

I think Nicholls is more impressive because scoring both 70 goals and/or 150 points is so rare regardless of what era a player played in.