What comical is the amount of time and space you have doubled down on here.
Brett hull is Canadian because he played most of his formative hockey years and lived those years in Canada.
The question is about pacing for the title not right now and the answer should be a huge yes as no other non Big 6 hockey player has a prime or playoff resume as good as Draisaitl right now.
Draisaitl has won Art Ross, Hart, Ted Lindsay awards. Also has a SCF finals. He's consistently put up some of the best playoff stats in history. And he's nowhere close to being done. To date, his career is already at worst on par with those guys. In the long run, he should easily clear them.
Lol making the SCF is some kind of award on its own? IF you award that as something worthy of mention.
You miss the post I quoted? That person cited a SCF appearance for Josi. I responded back to say Draisaitl has done that too. Also mentioned Hossa's losses on super teams.
I really don’t think he was captain.
Hossa also has 3 cups, is 37th all time in the history of goal scorers in the NHL, and 31st all time for Playoff points, so yeah to be one of the best Slovakian born players in the history of the game is going to put him over Draisaitl too.
Isn't Draisaitl like 5th all time in playoff points per game?
I was thinking Mikita as well...but I guess where saying technicality here. He came to Canada when he was 8. Draisaitl has been playing in Canada since he was 17 I think. But there is a difference here, Mikita is Canadian and played internationally for Canada, he was simply born in Czechoslovakia. Draisaitl is German and plays internationally for Germany.
Reminds me of when Ovechkin and Backstrom put up monster point totals in the playoffs but couldn't make a deep run. Blame it on injuries if you want, and it may be a factor, but Draisaitl has never produced in the later rounds, and doesn't belong anywhere near a conversation about best playoff performers of this decade. McDavid certainly does after proving his worth and then some in those later rounds.
Draisaitl has never been the best played in the league. He has had some good seasons, but so has players like Chara, who I can't see him ever surpassing, as he isn't on pace to do so. Chara was in the conversation for best defenseman in the league for a decade, anchored a defense that needed him to play high usage minutes and performed on the largest stage spectacularly many times. I haven't seen Leon shine in the handful of moments his team has been in the brightest of lights, and that is a knock on him.
What about the year where he was the top scorer, most valuable by writers, voted best by fellow players?
Draisaitl was better than McDavid for the Oilers for a certain period of time, and as somebody who has watched every game both of them have played was absolutely 100% fully deserving of his MVP season.
8 and 17 is a significant difference especially as it pertains to hockey players, and even more especially when Mikita never played hockey before setting foot in Canada. Also that Mikita became a Canadian citizen and was likely not a Czech/Slovakian citizen ever again, while I would assume that Draisaitl remains a German citizen even if he attains/attained Canadian citizenship. Mikita is relevant though in that he is very likely the correct answer if he is eligible, while Draisaitl is the answer if he is not.
Brett Hull is an interesting one....born in Canada and spent almost his whole life in Canada (pre-NHL) other than some early years in Chicago area. Some suggest he felt snubbed by Team Canada in the mid-80s so decided to play international hockey with Team USA since his mother is American he was able to do that. I have to imagine he simply wanted to play in the World Championships and that was his opportunity to do so....can see feeling snubbed by Team Canada when he, at the time, was not thought of as close to good enough.
And you can't seem to count things that objectively have happened. Even if his career ended today, he's on that level.
