King Connor continues his reign atop TSN Top 50 Players poll

Call it an annual coronation.

King Connor’s reign as No. 1 in the TSN Top 50 Players poll has extended to seven straight years.

It was never in doubt. Edmonton Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid is, for a third consecutive pre-season, the unanimous choice as the player projected to be best in the NHL.

All 20 TSN voters had McDavid first on their ballots.

Would anyone expect anything else?

The 2022-23 season was one long victory lap for McDavid, who became the fifth modern-era player to lead the league in goals, assists, and points and seventh player to win four individual trophies: the Hart, Ted Lindsay, Rocket Richard and Art Ross.

He set career highs in goals (64), assists (89) and points (153).

And McDavid, 26, remains in the prime of his career.

The question is, can the most highly evolved hockey player ever reach yet another level?

Sidney Crosby, who is No. 13 on this year’s list, has said he believes 170 points is within McDavid’s grasp. But that would be 17 points more than last season, which seems hard to imagine – even for McDavid.

What also seems hard to imagine, in the short term, is someone surpassing McDavid.

Not to say there aren’t highly worthy rivals – in particular the four who separated themselves from the rest of the peloton chasing McDavid.

First among them is Leon Draisaitl, Batman to McDavid’s Superman in Edmonton. They are the most dangerous duo in the league, finishing 1-2 in the scoring race, and 1-2 in the TSN poll.

No. 2 Draisaitl scored a combined 65 goals during the regular season and playoffs. His 32 power-play goals were two shy of the all-time single season record. Draisaitl’s playoff-high 13 goals in 12 games were equalled only by Conn Smythe Trophy-winning Jonathan Marchessault, who needed 10 more games.

No. 3 Nathan MacKinnon was third behind McDavid and Draisaitl in regular-season points per game in 2022-23 and the Colorado captain ranks third all-time in playoff points per game behind Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

No. 4 Cale Makar continues to build a Hall of Fame resume, earning at least one year-end honour in each of his four NHL seasons. Makar has smartly dismissed comparisons to the legendary Bobby Orr. But the Avs’ defenceman is to the blueline what McDavid is to the frontline, a breathtaking creative force who dares the opposition to catch him if they can.

No. 5 Auston Matthews is coming off a down season, however the Leaf is full value for what is now the NHL’s richest contract – a four-year, $13.25-million AAV deal that kicks in for the 2024-25 season. At this time last year, we were wondering if the game’s most lethal shooter could hit the 70-goal mark. Matthews has scored more goals than anyone since entering the league in 2016; his next goal will be No. 300.

The rest of the top 10:

No. 6: Matthew Tkachuk was a force of nature in his first season with Florida, finishing third in Hart Trophy voting and leading the Panthers to the Stanley Cup final.

No. 7: David Pastrnak went into overdrive and scored 12 goals in his last 10 games for Boston to become the 23rd player in NHL history to score 60 goals.

No. 8: Nikita Kucherov is the rare super-scorer equally productive no matter what time of year. The Tampa scoring machine has career averages of 1.13 points per game in both the regular and post seasons.

No. 9: New Jersey’s Jack Hughes made a quantum leap in the TSN Top 50 flashing one of the most dynamic and confident games in the league on the way to scoring 99 points. At 22, he is the youngest member of the top 10.

No. 10: Mikko Rantanen, yet another Avalanche player, is the Finnish finisher scoring 50-plus goals for the first time in his career and averaging more than a point per game in the playoffs for a fifth straight season.

Finally and notably, the other Connor, Connor Bedard, placed No. 48 in the poll, a remarkable achievement for an 18-year-old who has yet to play a single regular-season game. The Chicago franchise player is the first rookie tin the Top 50 in the 14-year history of the poll.