Heading into his draft year - and proceeding it for a number of years - MacKinnon was looked upon as generational. His draft year he took a hit, especially with Droiun out-scoring him. However, MacKinnon still went first, and Sakic was never in doubt, even with some pundits questioning who should be the #1 pick. There was a lot of pressure for him to select Seth Jones too, given the history with Popeye in Denver, and Popeye personally knowing Sakic (as well as Seth Jones). Still no contest - Sakic went with MacKinnon.
In my mind, he is "generational", which is a term that I find useless now given it is supposed to denote once every 20-30 years (depending on the definition). I prefer "Franchise altering superstar" or something similar. Whatever you want to call it, he is that. I don't there is a better player in today's game than he is. I rank him above McDavid, period.
However, yes, he certainly did take a hit in his draft season, plus he did start out a little slow in his career (Monahan is better! noise, for instance).
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