Crosby won his last Art Ross at age 26 in 2014. And if not for injuries, good chance he would have won 2011, 2012, 2013...and he won in 2014 in a landslide....so how many people in 2014 expected that to be Crosby's last?
Jagr in 2001 wins his 4th straight Ross....5th overall....wins it with a returning Lemieux in the lineup, and Jagr looks unstoppable. Who at the end of the 2001 seasons would have predicted this would be Jagr's last? Traded, downturn, KHL, lockouts etc..and he was done.
Sometimes these things are unpredictable. With how McDavid won his historic Ross with 153 points 2 years ago, and with how great he did last year, including playoffs, most people expect him to remain the clear best in league for a while, and keep racking them up. But who knows, maybe he doesn't win another one.
He certainly seems very focused on playoff success now.
For Crosby - his regular season performances dipped a bit in 16/17/18, but his playoff performances and success were great as a result. Maybe McDavid similarly ends up doing a bit less in regular season, but goes on to win a couple of cups and maybe more smythe.
For what it's worth - I voted 2, but it'll be very interresting to see....I wouldn't be shocked to see anything from 0 to 4 moving forward.