He would still be slightly behind Gretzky's accomplishments and about even with Howe, unless he managed to get better at competing for the Richard along the way in the repeat.
All this does is tell us that there’s nothing McDavid can ever do for you to rank him higher than #5 (and the way you’ve spent the last hundred pages maybe he still couldn’t surpass Crosby in your eyes…oh and of course your heart).
In the pure fantasy scenario of McDavid matching his own personal accomplishments from the first half of his career, (which I don’t agree with, McDavid might win another two Harts max, across the remaining 9-11 seasons he likely has left), that would give him a read out of:
6 Harts, 16 finalist nominations, a top 5 nomination for 17 years in a row (some combination of most or second most ever)
10 Art Rosses (tied for most ever)
8 Lindsays (most ever)
1964 points in 1,290 games across 18 seasons (second most ever)
14 100+ point seasons (second to Gretzky’s 15)
1,294 assists (second most ever)
16 seasons of both top 2 raw points and PPG finishes (I’m guessing
18 seasons in a row of top 3 PPG
I’m guessing both of those are the most ever or second to Gretzky)
2 Conn Smythes
In a modern day league with 30-32 teams.
About even with Howe? I don’t see how it’s not more, even if we retroactively grant him some hardware that didn’t exist at the time and play in the sandbox of adjusted stats. And if McDavid ran it from beginning to end like that, you had better believe that there would be an extremely vocal crowd questioning if there’s no limit to high how he could rank.
I don’t think he pulls off most of this, particularly since there’s no agenda right now to hand him phantom hardware or make up for supposed missed out opportunities. His Hart voting will eventually suffer, due to a combination of fatigue and battling his own best in the world highest standards. Obviously, there will come a point where winning the Art Ross is no longer the norm. And so on.
But thanks for confirming that you possess no bias and have no agenda of protecting Crosby’s legacy.