The magnitude of the current Connor McDavid individual awards haul we are in the midst in, is already one of the greatest in NHL history. Few players in the modern NHL raise as much debate as the Edmonton Oilers captain. While some call him the best of this generation for his seemingly unbounded speed and near-unmatched passing, others point to his lack of Stanley Cup Championships. The centre has led his franchise to the Stanley Cup Finals twice. Both times, they were beaten by the powerhouse Florida Panthers.
Connor McDavid Individual Awards Total Count, Elevates His Greatness
To many, the lack of a Stanley Cup is the ultimate deterrent to any argument regarding the Greatest of All-Time conversation. Even though McDavid claimed the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2024 after his first Finals appearance, fans say it doesn’t matter because the Cup still didn’t end up in Edmonton. It is a fair debate to have. It is also one that is increasingly hard to sustain when you look at what the man has done in eleven seasons.
Credit Image: © Alex Cave/ZUMA Press Wire
Here are five reasons why Connor McDavid’s individual awards prove he has already secured his place among the all-time greats in NHL history, Stanley Cup or not.
Six Art Ross Trophies Make Connor McDavid Nearly Untouchable
While most forwards dream of winning just one Art Ross Trophy, McDavid already boasts six of them. Even more remarkable is that he is just 29 and has played only 11 seasons. That means he was the best scorer in the regular season for half of his career so far. This season, he claimed his sixth scoring title with 138 points in 82 games while finishing eight points ahead of the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, who ended up as the runner-up with 130 points.
This sixth trophy places him on par with Penguins legend Mario Lemieux and Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe, who both have six Art Ross Trophies. Only Wayne Gretzky remains ahead of him with an astonishing 10 titles. The company he is already part of at just 29 is not just hockey greats, but three of the names on the Mount Rushmore of every hockey purist.
His Consistency Is Historically Unprecedented
But it is not just scoring that makes him so lethal. His consistency has also been unprecedented. In 794 regular-season games, McDavid has scored more than 1,220 points, including 409 goals and 811 assists. He has hit the 100-point mark nine times in his 11 seasons, missing only in his injury-ridden first season and the shortened COVID campaign. Although what is remarkable about that, from 2019-20, when he had 97 points in 64 games, he did come back with vengeance in 2020-21 with 105 points, in fewer games (56).
No other player in the modern era has been this consistently dominant for this long. In 2025-26 alone, he recorded points in 68 of 82 games, posted 43 multi-point performances, and became only the third player in league history to register a point in every team victory across a full season, joining Gretzky and Dennis Maruk in that company.
This consistency has made him the NHL’s most valuable player on three separate occasions, with many analysts already having him as their favourite for this season’s winner, before Kucherov claimed the trophy.
Three Hart Trophies Mark Connor McDavid’s Regular Season Greatness
The Hart Memorial Trophy is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association and awarded to the player deemed most valuable to his team. McDavid has three. His individual awards collection now stands at 15, the fifth-most in NHL history behind Gretzky, Alex Ovechkin, Lemieux, and Bobby Orr. Three Hart Trophies at 29 puts him in a conversation with Gretzky, Lemieux, and Orr at the same stage of their careers. That is not a bad neighbourhood to be standing in.
Connor McDavid’s Individual Awards Include Five Ted Lindsay Award Wins
This is where the all-time great argument becomes impossible to dismiss. The Ted Lindsay Award is not voted on by writers or broadcasters. It is given to the player viewed by his peers as the league’s most outstanding player, voted on by members of the NHLPA. These are the people who play against him every night, who see every trick up close, who know exactly what he is doing and how hard it is to stop him.
McDavid has won it five times, tying Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history. That matters in a way that few awards in professional sport can match. The NBA has an informal Players’ Voice Award through the NBPA, but it does not carry the same institutional weight. The NFL has no official player-voted MVP at all. MLB’s award goes to the Baseball Writers’ Association. In all four major North American sports, no player-voted award carries the prestige and history of the Ted Lindsay Award.
McDavid himself said it best: “This award, coming from the guys that you play against every single night and battle against every single night, and to have them recognize me for an award like this means so much.” When the men being beaten by him are the ones handing him the trophy, the argument for greatness becomes very difficult to dismiss.
The Stanley Cup Argument Cuts Both Ways
Lemieux won two Stanley Cups. Howe won four. Gretzky won four. The cup matters. Nobody is suggesting otherwise. But the absence of a ring has never been the final word on a player’s individual greatness, and in McDavid’s case, the counterargument is overwhelming. This year, he failed to even make it to round two of the playoffs. However, he has also dragged the Oilers to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals.
He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2024 on a team that lost. He has no more points than any other player since entering the league in 2015-16. Not one. The Stanley Cup is a team achievement. What McDavid has built through his individual awards is his alone. Fifteen trophies, six scoring titles, five player votes, and three MVPs. The only names ahead of him in the history books are Gretzky, Orr, Lemieux, and Ovechkin.
At 29 years old, Connor McDavid individual awards collection is still growing. The argument that he needs a Cup to belong in the all-time great conversation may say more about how we define greatness than it does about him.
Main Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
