The whole point of this OP is saying that MacKinnon's production has been above 1A's for nearly 2 years now. How long does production need to be on par or better for us to agree there is no more 1A, but two 1B's, and then some 1C's or even 2's or however you want to throw around numbers/letters lol.
I was about to say, MacKinnon is not in a tier with Kucherov and Draisaitl. I believe that based on his recent play he is much closer to McDavid. Like really who are we kidding, who watches these players and thinks Kucherov and Draisaitl are as good as MacKinnon?
McDavid is still #1 though. After starting last season injured he put up 2 points per game in the final 60 and then topped 40 points in the playoffs. MacKinnon hasn’t done this yet and he hasn’t reached 150+ points. But leading in points and ES points for 2 years straight firmly puts you in contention for best player, if we couldn’t see that from watching him play already these past few seasons.
Also people who want to dock him for playing with Makar, Draisaitl is glued to McDavid on the powerplay where they do a lot of their damage, furthermore they still play regular shifts together and cheat for offense at ES more than any elite forwards in the game.