Most NHL fans agree that at the moment, Connor McDavid is the best hockey player in the world and he reminded everyone of that against the Winnipeg Jets.
There has been a lot of hype surrounding Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs to start the season, but with the Oilers lack of games in the opening two weeks, it was easy to forget about McDavid. It wasn’t easy on Tuesday night as McDavid led his team to a victory after being down 4-1 in the third period.
With two goals and two assists on the night (Plus a record-setting contribution to his team’s start), Pierre LeBrun shared what he thinks McDavid is worth in the NHL.
It’s tough, because there are a couple of elite players that play at a level that might say they’re worth that much, but it’s just not going to happen in a salary cap NHL. The reason a performance like McDavid’s stands out so much is because of how rare it is that one player (Other than a goalie) can fully take over a game like he did, so the money gets spread out.
If a team is going to sink such a huge percentage of their cap into one player, they would have to be extremely efficient with the rest of their roster. Still, if contracts were decided purely on worth, even within the salary cap, it’s hard to argue that McDavid’s value isn’t that much higher than everyone else’s. He’s an outlier in just about every way on the ice, so it would make sense that his contract would reflect that.
McDavid won’t be negotiating any new contracts any time soon, but Matthews will be, so it will be interesting to see if he feels that elite players should be paid more as well.
