It’s all come down to this. This is the end of the Top 25 under 25 series and we’re ending with the most predictable finale since Psych! We had some players end up higher than they should, a few who ended a little lower than expected, we even had me fumbling over doing one for a goalie. But this, this is about as easy as it gets. We have the best player in the world on this team, and he’s taking the crown again.

About:

You don’t really need me to tell you about McDavid do you? Alright, fine. The Oilers lucked into their most lucky lottery win in 2015, picked him 1st overall as everyone knew he’s be, and he’s been the best player in the league ever since.

I did a 4 part Wow Factor series just to lead up to him. He has the vision of Peter Forsberg, the speed of Pavel Bure, and the puck skills of Sidney Crosby. He’s the most tremendous player in the game, and he’s likely to still be getting better. If you still don’t appreciate what he does, OP has you covered with his excellent piece.

What have you done for me lately?

Oh, you know, just won back to back scoring titles, Ted Lindsay trophies, and a Hart trophy. Electrified everyone every night, played through strep throat while still being a point per game player. This is stupid, we know what he’s done, I’m just going to put up the highlights.

So yeah, that’s what he’s done for us lately. He’s also already cashed in a cool $12M of his salary for this year. I’m sure that helped him have a great summer. He’s both the highest paid player in the league, and underpaid at the same time.

What does the future hold?

I don’t know. What’s the limit? He says he wants to score more goals this year, and spent the summer working on his shot. It’s incredible. Add in that the powerplay sucked last year, and that he was sick for almost two months. I’ve said it before, he had a down year last year. Offensive peak in players is usually between age 23 and 25, is there really a way to cap what he’s going to do? Take the 108 points he had last year, understand that scoring players usually get 25% from the powerplay and adjust. Adjust for his strep throat, adjust for his improvement. It’s insanity. He could get 140 points if everything goes well, who knows?

All that really needs to be said is that he’s the greatest player in the NHL, and he’s not relinquishing that title any time soon. A player like this knows what he has to do and then he’s going to go do it.

So there you have it. A very short piece on the best player we have to wrap up the Top 25.