Connor McDavid

McDavid produced 32 goals and 100 assists in 2023-24, comfortably surpassing the 100-point plateau for a fourth consecutive season. He also tied for third-most power-play points in the NHL despite missing six games. McDavid and Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov were the first players to collect 100 assists in a season since Wayne Gretzky piled up 122 helpers for LA in 1990-91. The 27-year-old McDavid had only 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his first 11 games, which qualified as a sluggish start by his standards, but he exploded for 122 points (30 goals, 92 assists) in his final 65 outings to finish third in league scoring. He has reached the 100-point mark in seven of the last eight seasons. McDavid's offensive consistency should make him the No. 1 player off the board on draft day.

Already among the most productive active players, McDavid lapped the field in 2022-23. His 64 goals and 89 assists, totaling 153 points, gave him the 15th best season in NHL history -- he's just one of six players to have reached the 150-point mark in a single campaign. Standard superlatives don't do McDavid justice at this point -- even an 18.2 shooting percentage doesn't seem out of place despite it being his best single-season mark. Still just 26 years old, it's possible he could play at this level for a handful of years before entering the back nine of his career. The fantasy advice is simple: if you have the first overall pick, you take McDavid and work on building a roster around him.

The most unstoppable offensive force since Wayne Gretzky, McDavid is fresh off a season in which he posted 123 points in 80 games to lead the league in scoring. It was the second straight season and fourth in the past six years in which McDavid has won the Art Ross Trophy. McDavid doesn't offer much in terms of hits, blocks and penalty minutes, but he's the most valuable player in the league in all other offensive categories. McDavid has posted no fewer than 33 power-play points each of the past four years, while finishing with no fewer than 97 total points over that same period. By the way, those 97 points came in just 64 games in 2019-20. If you are fortunate enough to earn the top pick in your draft this fall, don't think -- take McDavid and keep it moving.

What was thought to be nearly impossible ended up being reality for McDavid in 2020-21, as he racked up 105 points (33 goals, 72 assists) in just 56 games. He finished the season as the unanimous MVP, winning the Hart Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award and the Art Ross Trophy in one of the more remarkable campaigns in recent memory. Still just 24 years old, it's possible we haven't seen the best of McDavid yet. He enters 2021-22 as the centerpiece of the Oilers' offense and power play, and it seems like at least 100 points should be expected from the superstar center. He shouldn't drop past the No. 2 spot in fantasy drafts, and he'll likely be the first player off the board in most formats.

McDavid missed the 100-point mark for the first time in four years last season, but he wasn't far off with 34 goals and 63 helpers in 64 contests. If the NHL hadn't paused its season, the superstar center would have had no trouble eclipsing the century mark. He also set a new career high in power-play points with 43. There's no reason to doubt McDavid will be anything other than a top-three fantasy option when healthy in 2020-21. He should be able to put up a 40-goal, 110-point pace over the course of a full season, with lofty shot totals and impressive numbers on the man advantage making him a lock for an early first-round pick in all fantasy formats.

McDavid finished last season with the second most points in the league (116), scoring 41 goals for a second straight year and adding 75 assists for good measure. With soft hands, unparalleled speed and vision, No. 97 seems like a lock for another 100-plus point campaign in 2019-2020 provided he stays healthy and avoids injury, something he's done successfully the last three years after being limited to 45 games in his rookie season. Linemates notwithstanding, fantasy owners will be hard-pressed to find a better option than McDavid, so if you're armed with the first overall selection, drafting the Oilers' captain is the right move.

McDavid finished last season with a league-high 108 points en route to securing the Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award for two years running. Having produced the first 40-goal campaign of his career, the only knock on the world-class center's game is his lack of creating with the man advantage; in fact, less than 25 percent of McDavid's career production is derived from his power-play exploits. Still, given his soft hands, unparalleled skill set and the presence of established top-line cohort Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, fantasy owners will be hard-pressed to pass on McDavid if lucky enough to land him with the first overall pick.

McDavid's injury-shortened rookie year offered plenty of promise, but his second act was nothing short of spectacular -- this time, he played all 82 games and blew away the competition with 30 goals and 70 assists for an even 100 points. That’s 11 more than Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane, who tied for second, and McDavid rounded his line out with a plus-27 rating while leading the formerly cellar-dwelling Oilers two rounds deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Just 20 years old, McDavid has quite arguably unseated Crosby for the title of best player in hockey -- you may not find anyone outside of Pittsburgh willing to argue otherwise. What’s next for McDavid, who inked an eight-year, $100 million contract extension over the summer? Well, as long as he can stay healthy (unlike Crosby, whose illustrious career has been dogged by concussions), a decade-plus of utter domination would be a reasonable expectation.

If not for a broken clavicle that knocked him out for two-plus months, McDavid would have fully lived up to the hype of being drafted first overall in 2015, as he put up 16 goals and 32 assists for 48 points in the 45 games he suited up for. The 19-year-old phenom has been compared favorably to Sidney Crosby, so expect McDavid to again manage a point-per-game pace as the Oilers’ top-line center, this time finishing among the league’s top scorers if he can stay healthy. Thanks to defensive improvements to the roster as well as his own projected growth as a player, McDavid should also see improvement from last season’s minus-1 rating. The sky's the limit for the Canadian teen, even on an Edmonton team where first overall picks go to die.

McDavid is a generational talent whose pro peak should -- and likely will -- exceed Sidney Crosby's peak. The 18-year-old has elite hockey smarts and sublime skills, but what separates him from everyone else is his ability to execute at warp speed. He's certainly faster than Sid the Kid at the same age and his change of pace -- which leaves opponents twisted like pretzels -- will translate immediately into the NHL. That means the ceiling for the next captain of the Oil is through the roof. But Edmonton fans and fantasy owners need to temper their expectations for him in 2015-16. The NHL was a very different league when Sid the Kid delivered 102 points as a rookie. That being said, McSavior will pair well with the speedy Taylor Hall, and both will pile up the points. A hundred-point campaign will eventually come, but not for a few more seasons.