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Originally Posted by howard_the_duck
I always go back to...what would happen if you removed both of these players from their respective teams? What is Edmonton without McDavid? What about Tampa without Kucherov?
McDavid is everything to the Oilers...essentially is their system. Leads the league in even strength points/60, zone entries, GF% craters when he's not on the ice. And he's not just the MVP of a meh team, he's led that flawed team to back-to-back finals. You can debate their path to the finals, I guess. Round one against LA has been a doormat, but Vegas and Dallas have been conference heavyweights. I thought Edmonton earned their finals appearance last year, though I've always felt like Colorado would be their strongest competition.
And then you have international competition, which for Kucherov we don't have a recent eye test to be fair, but McDavid vs Mackinnon at the Olympics wasn't close IMO. I think also how Mackinnon lauds McDavid any chance he gets, he knows who the best is.
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See, you are basing all this off of feelings and not stats. Fair enough, but look at TB when Kucherov was out all year. They inch into the POs, he comes back, and they win the cup. Look at Florida with and without Barkov.
The fact McDavid is the very best on a bad team doesn't mean that much to me. And it's not that bad of a team player wise anyway. They do have Draisaitl, Hyman, RNH. They have Bouchard and Ekholm.