The Oilers were hardly a "crappy expansion team". They were16th (out of 21 teams) while another "expansion team" was 14th in the league.
FUN FACT: Crosby was better than Wayne at the same age until age 20. Wayne started in the NHL at age 18 years and 8 1/2 months, Crosby hit that age in late March of 2006.
I think there was a time in Crosby's first two seasons where we weren't sure how high he was going to peak and he was in the neighbourhood of Gretzky's first two years. Year 2 Gretzky had 164 points and shattered the points and assists records. Crosby had 120 points. Both won the hardware and if you take into account the levels of scoring in the NHL it is closer than it looks, but I think you still give the edge to Gretzky here. By Year 3 Gretzky took off at a level that was impossible for Crosby or anyone to mimic. I have always felt Crosby's first two or three years were more on the level with Mario. By 1988 Mario hit another stride that Crosby never did, but I'd say the first three years in the NHL they were similar. Consider the 1987 Canada Cup the time Mario hit into another universe.
Besides Gretzky, what is the highest PPG finish (min. 75% or whatever of games) that...
-- a first-year player has finished in scoring?
-- an 18-19 year old has finished in scoring?
Per the first question, the obvious ones that jump to mind are Stastny and Selanne. But Stastny was only 8th in PPG, and Selanne 7th.
As to 18-19 year olds, Mario Lemieux was 9th and Crosby 6th (Ovechkin was 5th, but I think he was 20 years old the whole season).
McDavid did not quite play 75% of the NHL season, and he only finished with 48 points in 45 games, but he was 3rd in PPG with 1.07. Patrick Kane (1.29) and Jamie Benn (1.09) were the only ones ahead of him. But that is only 55% of the season. Thank God this is the only injury issue he has had in his NHL career (he also got in a fight in his last year of junior hockey and hurt his hand and missed time). But I am thinking this is probably your best example. McDavid was 18, and you can make a decent case he gets 90 points that year. Who knows.
Lindros finished 3rd in PPG in 1994, but he was a 2nd year guy, and 20 years old.
Yeah it just doesn't happen. Gretzky doing this in 1980 is utterly spectacular. Dionne had a great year in 1980 as well, and he was the only one within shouting distance for the Hart that year against Gretzky. It gets underrated because Gretzky re-wrote the record book right after this but an 18 year old stepping into the NHL like that and pretty much being the best player in the NHL already is unheard of. Crosby was not the best player in the NHL in 2006. He was by the following year but Ovechkin was better that year and obviously Thornton and Jagr had better years. McDavid was not the best in the NHL either in his rookie year. Kane was. Crosby was still better and Benn and Seguin had good years too.
The best I can see for rookies that isn't mentioned is Syl Apps. He is 21 in his Calder winning year but he's 2nd in points and 2nd in PPG.
Boom Boom Geoffrion is 20 but is 8th in PPG and 6th in points
Gilbert Perreault finishes 6th in goals in 1971, but he's 20 years old
Joe Nieuwendyk is 22 years old and finished 5th in goals in 1988.
Yeah, that's about the best I can find and Gretzky just obliterates those guys. 18 year olds don't step into the NHL and dominate. Bedard was highly touted and he was well down the pecking order. He might be Perreault-type of level as an 18 year old that Perreault was as a 20 year old. But that's still miles from 18 year old Gretzky.
Nah, Don Cherry's Rockies were an awful, awful team. A completely dysfunctional shitshow before it became the Mickey Mouse organization (®Gretzky) known as the New Jersey Devils.
The Oilers were 16th of 21 teams. They squeaked into the playoffs with the last spot and got the Flyers 1st round, fresh off their 35 game unbeaten record earlier in the year. They got swept in three games but took two of them to overtime. 69 points they had and the worst in the league was 51. Which was the Rockies. The Oilers had the 2nd worst goals against in the NHL. You have a young Messier (33 points) and Kevin Lowe who are both rookies. Gretzky had 137 points, followed by Blair MacDonald at 94 who was on his line and that was basically half of the NHL points he had his entire career. Then Stan Weir at 66 points. Honestly, who on earth is playing with him offensively here? No wonder he was in on pretty much half of the Oilers goals that year, who else was there? Then look at their goalies. Dave Dryden who might have been thought of as the most solid of them all was 2-7-3 that year. Somehow none other than Ron Low was 8-2-1. But they had a carousel of goalies that year and none were decent. Eddie Mio, Jim Corsi, yowzers! That was a bad team that only Gretzky managed to get crawled into the playoffs. No wonder he won the Hart that year.