The playoffs have been about as tidy as a tire fire for the Edmonton Oilers, but the 2025-26 NHL season will go down in the books as one of the best in the exemplary career of Connor McDavid.
Given annually to the most-outstanding player in the NHL, as voted by the NHL Players’ Association, McDavid is up against San Jose Sharks rookie sensation Macklin Celibrini and Tampa Bay Lightning star forward Nikita Kucherov, who won the award last season, as well as in 2018-19.
The Oilers captain claimed his sixth Art Ross trophy, leading the league with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) — eight points ahead of Kucherov — while playing all 82 regular-season games, helping an up-and down Oilers squad to a second-place finish in the Pacific Division.
Numbers-wise, the only better season McDavid has had was in 2022-23, when he earned career highs of 64 goals and 153 points.
And even with the team on the brink of elimination heading into Game 5 of their opening-round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the Oilers took time out to celebrate McDavid’s efforts.
“That’s about the least surprising thing I’ve heard all morning,” Leon Draisaitl said at morning skate following the announcement McDavid was among this year’s nominees.
McDavid has four previous Ted Lindsay awards on his resume (2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, 2022-23), and has been nominated seven times. Only Wayne Gretzky has won it five times.
“I believe production-wise, it was his second-best year,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “He led the NHL in scoring and really had a tremendous second half or three-quarters of the season.
“Especially at the end of the year when our season was on the line and we’re missing Draisaitl, who is another star in this league, where he really elevated his game and got our team into the playoffs.”
The post-season has been another story for McDavid, unfortunately, with a goal and three assists, along with a minus-4 goal differential heading into Game 5.
He was held off the scoresheet in Game 1 against Anaheim, which marked the first time all season the Oilers won a game without him earning at least a point, as well as a Game 2 loss to the Ducks.
In that game, McDavid injured his ankle in a collision with teammate Mattias Ekholm, which has appeared to hamper him, though he has continued to play through it. McDavid was listed as a game-time decision for Tuesday night after sitting out the morning skate.
“Not one guy is going to replace him, and we have some guys that are banged up and they’re continuing to play and doing the best that they can do,” Knoblauch said. “But ultimately everybody’s got to step it up a little bit.
“Playoffs is a tough time to play, it’s tight checking, there’s not much room and we’re playing a good team with Anaheim and right now we need those guys that are healthy being able to pick up the slack for the guys that can’t play like they want to.”
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
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