McDavid the Unanimous #1 in TSN’s Top 50 Players Ranking – TSN.ca

The Crosby-McDavid TSN Top 50 Dynasty has reached 13 years.

Connor McDavid is ranked No. 1 in TSN’s preseason player rankings for a sixth straight year after Sidney Crosby’s seven-year tenure.

And it wasn’t close, though Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Colorado’s Stanley Cup-winning defender Cale Makar enjoyed sensational 2021-22 seasons.

Second-ranked Matthews was the NHL’s undisputed regular-season leader, winning the Rocket Richard Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. Matthews received four times as many first-place votes in the Hart Vote as defending MVP McDavid.

Makar, meanwhile, in 3rd place won the Norris Trophy and was the unanimous choice for the Conn Smythe Trophy. He became only the third defender in league history to win both titles in the same season. The other two? Eight-time Norris winner Bobby Orr and seven-time Norris winner Nicklas Lidstrom.

Despite this, McDavid received all 20 first-place votes and unanimously earned status as TSN’s No. 1 predicted player for the 2022-23 season.

It’s the second straight season that McDavid has been the all-in pick for the No. 1.

Connor McDavid collected all 20 first place votes and was unanimously voted #1 in the annual TSN poll for the second year running. Matthews and Makar were the final picks at No. 2 and No. 3, earning a combined 18-of-20 second-place votes and 16-of-20 third-place votes.

To put it bluntly, McDavid’s credibility is impeccable. The Edmonton superstar won the regular-season and playoff scoring titles – while averaging career-high goals in each – becoming the first player since Evgeni Malkin in 2009.

As usual, an extraordinary number of his goals and assists should not have been counted as much as they should be hung in a museum to preserve for future generations.

McDavid remains hockey’s most spectacular player, even in the face of a challenge from Makar, and is rightly considered the most accomplished player in hockey history.

He won the playoff scoring title with 33 points – including 10 goals and 17 primary assists – despite Edmonton losing in the third round.

Oiler’s running mate and centermate Leon Draisaitl finished a point behind McDavid in the postseason points race — he amassed an NHL-record 17 points in five second-round games against Calgary — and finished fourth in the TSN league Opinion poll.

The Great Nate, Nathan MacKinnon, is No. 5. Colorado center ranks third all-time in playoff points per game, eclipsing Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

The TSN Top 10 is filled, in that order, by a trio of Tampa Bay Lightning, No. 6 defenseman Victor Hedman, No. 7 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and No. 8 right winger Nikita Kucherov, and No. 9 Florida center Aleksander Barkov, No .10 Minnesota left winger Kirill Kaprizov.