ESPN Ranked Connor McDavid How Low Among NHLers at the Olympics?

The return of NHL players at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 has the hockey world buzzing—and so far, it hasn’t disappointed. Best-on-best international tournaments are not only a treat to watch, but they also spark endless debate, comparisons, and player rankings, with one recent list, in particular, having turned heads.

ESPN ranked the top 50 NHL players at the Olympics based on average goals above replacement (GAR) over the past three seasons. To the surprise of many, Connor McDavid—the consensus best player in the world—wasn’t first or even second on the list.

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Instead, McDavid landed at at number three behind Colorado Avalanche superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in writer Neil Paine’s rankings.

Paine wrote:

“McDavid would be neck-and-neck with MacKinnon for No. 1 if he hadn’t missed 15 games last season, leading to a “down” season by his standards. Of course, a down season for McDavid still meant hitting the century mark in adjusted points for a ninth straight season and ranking 14th in the league in GAR. We should all hope our “down years” are so good,”

The 29-year-old McDavid has torn the NHL up in 2025-26. Despite a somewhat slow start to the season — for his standards — he leads the league in scoring at the Olympic break with 96 points (34 goals, 62 assists) produced in just 58 games.

Connor McDavid Put on a Clinic Against Czechia

As if anyone needed a reminder that he’s the best player in the world, McDavid delivered one in Canada’s tournament opener against Czechia on Thursday.

Three points (three assists)—and it easily could have been five or six—in a dominant 5-0 Team Canada win, which included firing six shots on goal, and laying one massive hit on his first shift of the game, leveling Lukas Sedlek in the corner to set the tone from the start.

MacKinnon and Makar were excellent themselves, but there’s simply nobody like number 97 and he put it full display, shot out of a cannon, looking like a guy who’s been waiting his entire life to get a taste of Olympic hockey.

The heartbreak of losing back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals won’t go away anytime soon—at least not until he finally wins a Cup—but McDavid is a man on a mission right now, determined to reshape the narrative and define his legacy on the world’s biggest stage. And when McDavid puts his mind to something, he often get’s it done, so it’s hard to imagine anyone standing in his way of doing just that and capturing a gold medal in Milan.

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