MacKinnon has 150 points in his last 82 games

[rielledup]

If Mackinnon can still be at his absolute peak next year (he'll be turning 30 before next season) him and McDavid 1, 2 down the middle is what might get us past the Americans.

 

[The Panther]

MacKinnon's 8 years is not at a slightly higher level than Crosby's and Crosby has been an excellent player his entire career. Something MacKinnon has already disqualified himself from due to his slow start the first four seasons of his career.

I didn't say it was. I do think, however, that MacKinnon's prime years are now starting to match any comparable period of seasons that Crosby has had. I'm not knocking Crosby (who I love) here; I'm just saying that I think MacKinnon is being slightly under-rated.

From the 2019-20 season until today (5+ seasons in a row), MacKinnon has put up 522 points in 348 games, while going +118. If you break that down to per 82 games, it's 123 points per season, +32 per season, for over five years. That's an incredible period of greatness for more than five years (and he doesn't appear to be slowing down this year). Does Crosby have a five-year period that's comparable, offensively...? Sort-of, maybe... but not really, especially in light of how many partial seasons he was having in his prime.

The same, but maybe even more so, applies to Kucherov. Since 2018-19, Kucherov has 561 points in 373 games, or 123 points per season for almost six seasons (over seven years).

Even taking into account somewhat higher scoring in recent years compared to c.2006 to 2015, Crosby doesn't have any seasons (in my view) that reach the offensive peaks of MacKinnon and Kucherov. But maybe in overall impact over five or six seasons in a row, I can see Crosby being at their offensive level.

Again, with playoffs, I'm not seeing Crosby as better than them. Maybe Crosby and Kucherov have a somewhat better resume than MacKinnon, as his Cup-win year isn't quite up at Crosby '09 or Kucherov '20 / '21 levels.

What it all comes down to, for me, is that I would tend to 'rank' Crosby, Ovechkin, Kucherov, and MacKinnon all about equal... but that's assuming the younger two don't abruptly fall off a cliff tomorrow.