For as exciting as it is for hockey fans to watch Connor McDavid play, keeping track of the Edmonton Oilers superstar’s numbers can be almost as fun for stat nerds.
As McDavid piles up increasingly more goals and assists year after year, the veteran of eight NHL seasons is now at a point where milestones are virtually a monthly occurrence. These moments happen so often that they can get lost among each other amid the Oilers’ pursuit of their first championship since 1990.
Related: 3 Reasons Connor McDavid May Be Extra Motivated This Season
With that said, the Stanley Cup takes precedence over everything, and the lofty individual stats will mean little to McDavid if they aren’t accompanied by a championship ring. Even so, Edmonton’s captain is poised to reach several benchmarks in 2023-24, and hockey fans would only be cheating themselves by not taking a second to appreciate his singular brilliance.
So as McDavid continues carving out his place among the legends of the game, here’s a look at when his next great achievements could happen over the course of Edmonton’s regular season schedule from October to April.
October: Another Year as Oilers Captain
While it’s not a new record, McDavid will continue his tenure as the longest-serving Oilers captain when he hits the ice in Edmonton’s season-opener against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 11 to begin his eighth year wearing the ‘C’.
No other player in franchise history has served a captaincy longer than five seasons, and there are only five current captains who have longer active tenures with their respective teams than McDavid.
November: 3rd Most Assists in Oilers History
With 547 career assists, McDavid has the fourth most helpers in Oilers history and is only 22 away from tying Jari Kurri for third place. He averaged 1.09 assists per game last season, and if he can keep up that rate to start off 2023-24, he would pass Kurri on Nov. 28 versus the Vegas Golden Knights or Nov. 30 at the Winnipeg Jets.
Once he moves past Kurri, only Mark Messier (642 assists as an Oiler) and Wayne Gretzky (1,086) will rank ahead of McDavid in Edmonton’s NHL history.
December: 4th Most Points in Oilers History
McDavid has 850 points in his career, fifth most all-time as an Oiler. He’s been sitting in that spot for a while, since passing Paul Coffey (669 points) in March 2022. The 26-year-old will have another Hall-of-Famer in his sights, as he closes in on Glenn Anderson, who is currently fourth in franchise history with 906 regular season points.
Should McDavid produce points at a rate similar to last season, when he averaged 1.87 per game, he’ll overtake Anderson just before Christmas. That will leave just three players with more points as an Oiler than McDavid. He should move ahead of the next two, Messier (1,034) and Kurri (1,043), in 2024-25. Gretzky’s spot atop the leaderboard, with 1,669 points for the Oilers in the NHL, is still safe.
January: Top 100 Assists in NHL History
After just eight seasons, McDavid is already universally regarded as one of the greatest players in NHL history. He’s definitely top 20, probably top 10. If one wanted to argue that he’s top 5 all-time, there’s a case to be made.
But statistically, McDavid doesn’t yet rank in the top 100 in NHL history for any major categories. That will change when he gets his 46th assist of the season, giving him a career total of 593 to move ahead of Dino Ciccarelli for 100th place all-time. Based on his assist rate from last season, that should happen sometime during the week of Jan. 21, just prior to the NHL All-Star Break.
From there, McDavid’s ascent will be quick; he’ll likely be around No. 85 for most NHL career assists by the time the season ends. He could also sneak into the top 100 for points in 2023-24, but it will be 2024-25 before he cracks the leaderboard for the top 100 goal scorers of all time.
February: Another 100-Point NHL Season
McDavid has five seasons with at least 100 points in the NHL, including each of the last three. A sixth such season would tie Kurri and Messier for second-most in franchise history, trailing only Gretzky who had 100-plus points in all nine NHL seasons he was with the Oilers.
Meanwhile, a fourth consecutive season of 100 or more points would be the third-longest streak in franchise history, behind only Kurri (five) and Gretzky.
At his 2022-23 rate of 1.87 points per game, McDavid would reach 100 points in 54 games. Edmonton plays games No. 54 through 58 of the season during the last week of February.
March: Most Game-Winning Goals in Oilers History
Last season, McDavid scored 11 game-winning goals (GWG) to move past Kurri and Gretzky into second place on the Oilers’ all-time leaderboard. He begins 2023-24 with 64 GWG in his career, eight back of Anderson (72) for top spot.
Because the Oilers weren’t as successful in the earlier part of his career, McDavid didn’t have as many opportunities to register a GWG. But as Edmonton has won 61% of its games over the last three seasons, he has notched a GWG at a rate of nearly once every seven games.
Assuming Edmonton continues to be a winning team, McDavid could need just another 60-70 games to score nine more GWGs, which would see him surpass Anderson sometime in March.
April: 1,000 Career NHL Points
If McDavid is to become the fourth player with 1,000 points as an Oiler during the 2023-24 season, that would mean racking up 150 points in the upcoming 82 games. Considering only six different players have recorded 150 points in a single season, that would seem almost impossible for pretty much any player. Except McDavid is not just any player — he’s one of those six players with a 150-point campaign and he did it just last season when he scored 69 goals and 84 assists.
Even so, if McDavid can repeat those numbers, it’s likely going to come down to the last few days of the season. In 2022-23, he recorded his 150th point in Edmonton’s 80th game, and the Oilers will play game No. 80 on April 15, against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place.
Of course, this also assumes that McDavid isn’t out of action for more than a couple games on the 2023-24 schedule. His track record suggests that’s a safe bet: he has suited up for all but two games over the last three seasons and hasn’t missed more than six games since being sidelined by injury for nearly half of his rookie campaign in 2015-16. He’s played in every game in four of the last seven seasons.
Whatever McDavid does or doesn’t accomplish during the regular season, his biggest milestones can come in May and June, respectively: winning the Western Conference championship series for the first time, and hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time.
