If Draisaitl wins the Hart, does he join MacKinnon and Kucherov in the "2nd Best player since the 2015" discussion.

[daver]

A lack of a Cup/playing with McDavid may have kept Draisaitl a bit below Mack and Kucherov despite having numbers that argubly place him right there with them. For the first time in his career, he is clearly having a better season than McDavid.

Is he right there with those two in ranking the best players since 2015?

 

[centipede2233]

having no cups is a team thing. Drasaitl has impressive playoff numbers. Kucherov has 2 covid cups where one in which they circumvented the cap, MacKinnon has 1 cup which seems a bit underwelming since Colorado has been a contender for a number of years.

 

[Plastic Joseph]

IMO he is still #4 but 2-4 is a close group.

McDavid
Mack/Kuch/Drai

Regardless of who wins this year that's how it will be

 

[Plastic Joseph]

having no cups is a team thing. Drasaitl has impressive playoff numbers. Kucherov has 2 covid cups where one in which they circumvented the cap, MacKinnon has 1 cup which seems a bit underwelming since Colorado has been a contender for a number of years.

1 cup is never underwhelming in a 30+ team league. Winning. 1 is very hard

 

[daver]

having no cups is a team thing. Drasaitl has impressive playoff numbers. Kucherov has 2 covid cups where one in which they circumvented the cap, MacKinnon has 1 cup which seems a bit underwelming since Colorado has been a contender for a number of years.

I would agree it's a bit of a tossup between them for best playoff performer but Draisaitl did not deliver much past the 2nd round last year, most notably in the SCF. In 2023, he had one assist after the Oilers were up 2-0 against the Knights. He has been like MacKinnon before 2022, racking up big point totals in high scoring games but not delivering in keys moments to advance his team.

Painting the Bolts' Cup wins as anything other than deserving isn't reasonable. They had two SCF appearances besides the two Cups and were knocking on the door in other years too.

What is more tangible is that Mac and Kucherov hit a level last year in the regular season that Draisaitl has not hit.

 

[ijuka]

What do you mean, "join"? As if he wasn't there already.

 

[ijuka]

I would agree it's a bit of a tossup between them for best playoff performer but Draisaitl did not deliver much past the 2nd round last year, most notably in the SCF. In 2023, he had one assist after the Oilers were up 2-0 against the Knights. He has been like MacKinnon before 2022, racking up big point totals in high scoring games but not delivering in keys moments to advance his team.

Painting the Bolts' Cup wins as anything other than deserving isn't reasonable. They had two SCF appearances besides the two Cups and were knocking on the door in other years too.

What is more tangible is that Mac and Kucherov hit a level last year in the regular season that Draisaitl has not hit.

Every player looks bad if you only cherry pick the games they played poorly in.

 

[daver]

Every player looks bad if you only cherry pick the games they played poorly in.

Let's put it this way. I would not give Draisaitl an advantage over them based on his playoff PPG.

The Oilers have run and gunned their way to more wins than Tbay and the Avs have. When the Oilers played more of a defensive game to get farther along, and separated Drai and McDavid at ES, Draisaitl's numbers went down.

 

[TheGuiminator]

How many more 50goal/50 assist seasons, 100 point seasons, Art Ross, and Hart trophies is it gonna take for Draisaitl to be regarded at the same level as Kucherov and MacKinnon? The fact is, he’s already there.

And it might be unpopular, but I think he’s at the same level as a prime Crosby, Ovechkin, and Malkin. The numbers are there, especially if he captures another Hart and Ross by the end of this season.

 

[daver]

How many more 50goal/50 assist seasons, 100 point seasons, Art Ross, and Hart trophies is it gonna take for Draisaitl to be regarded at the same level as Kucherov and MacKinnon? The fact is, he’s already there.

And it might be unpopular, but I think he’s at the same level as a prime Crosby, Ovechkin, and Malkin. The numbers are there, especially if he captures another Hart and Ross by the end of this season.

Based on what?

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Draisaitl is on an 18 game scoring streak, the longest this season
he's recorded his 6th 100 point season, only Crosby and McDavid have had as many
he's 1 goal away from his 4th 50G-50A season, the only active player in the NHL to do this 4 times

I'd say he's right there

 

[Regal]

I don’t see the point in voter awards affecting someone’s opinion of a player. It wouldn’t change how good his season is or how good he’s been the past 7-8 years. I think he’s always been in that group, though I’ve tended to prefer the other two. Also, I think he was also clearly better than McDavid in his previous Hart season.

 

[blundluntman]

I prefer Mackinnon but I have to give the man credit, he's been in that tier this entire time; he's better this season too. Wouldn't trade Mackinnon for him but if it happened, I'd be okay with it sentiments aside.

 

[Matsun]

Draisaitl is on an 18 game scoring streak, the longest this season
he's recorded his 6th 100 point season, only Crosby and McDavid have had as many
he's 1 goal away from his 4th 50G-50A season, the only active player in the NHL to do this 4 times

I'd say he's right there

Over their last 18 games (since January 26th):
Mackinnon: 18-8-20-28
Draisaitl: 18-13-14-27
Mackinnon has scored more points than Draisaitl over the scoring streak.

Draisaitl had a PPG of 1.51 before the streak and over his scoring streak he has a PPG of 1.5. He is actually scoring at a sligthly lower pace by the numbers.

 

[The Nuge]

He was already there a long time ago. If anything, it was MacKinnon who joined Draisaitl and Kucherov for the discussion for second best

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Over their last 18 games (since January 26th):
Mackinnon: 18-8-20-28
Draisaitl: 18-13-14-27
Mackinnon has scored more points than Draisaitl over the scoring streak.

how many from empty-netters?

 

[nowhereman]

How many more 50goal/50 assist seasons, 100 point seasons, Art Ross, and Hart trophies is it gonna take for Draisaitl to be regarded at the same level as Kucherov and MacKinnon? The fact is, he’s already there.

And it might be unpopular, but I think he’s at the same level as a prime Crosby, Ovechkin, and Malkin. The numbers are there, especially if he captures another Hart and Ross by the end of this season.

He hasn't done anything to prove he's on prime Crosby or OV's level.