Connor McDavid is a generational NHL player, no doubt. Will he win the Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers and join other generational talents as champions? There is some doubt about that, but never say never.
While winning a Stanley Cup isn't a prerequisite to being considered a generational talent, every generational NHL player, by my reckoning, has sipped from the Holy Grail.
Everyone except Connor McDavid.
More than anyone, the Edmonton Oilers captain probably wishes hockey took on the rules of horseshoes, where close is good enough.
After successive Stanley Cup final heartbreaks and a second-fiddle Olympics, when will McDavid reach the summit of his sport?
One thing is for sure: he's closing in on becoming the longest-standing generational player not to secure hockey's ultimate prize.
Which Generational Player Took The Longest To Win The Cup?
Alex Ovechkin won the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in his 13th season.
While everyone is euphoric when they win the most challenging trophy in sports, for the Great 8, the sense of relief was palpable when he lifted the silver chalice.
McDavid has two more playoff runs to win the Stanley Cup before Ovechkin and three more cracks to tie.
When Did Other Generational Players Win The Cup?
Sidney Crosby, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe were the quickest to reach the sport's supremacy, all winning the Stanley Cup in their fourth season.
Wayne Gretzky led the Oilers to glory for the first time in his fifth season, while Mario Lemieux didn't capture the Cup until his seventh year.
Gretzky won all four of his Cups in Edmonton by his ninth season, a remarkable accomplishment that saw him average one Stanley Cup per two-and-a-quarter seasons. He didn't, however, add to that tally in his final 11 seasons.
He came close with the Los Angeles Kings in 1992-93, losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final.
Of the aforementioned generational players' 15 combined Stanley Cups, only two were won after their 11th season, one of which was Ovechkin in 2018. The other was Crosby, who won his third in 2017, his 12th season.
Will McDavid Have To Leave The Oilers To Win the Cup?
With every passing season, it becomes more likely that McDavid will have to depart Alberta's capital to win.
The two-year contract extension McDavid signed with the Oilers finishes at the end of the 2027-28 season, but there's no way the franchise will allow their second-best player of all-time to walk without receiving a massive bounty in return.
If he doesn't win a Cup this season, rumors about his potential departure will ramp up. I think McDavid will give it one more season before deciding whether to call it quits on the only place he's called home since turning pro in 2015.
It will all become a moot point if he propels the Oilers to glory in the next few months. They've won five games in a row and are actually playing defense, all without the injured Leon Draisaitl.
If anyone can do it, McDavid can.
Then again, that's what I said in the previous two years, but at least this time, he doesn't have to worry about the prospect of playing the pesky Florida Panthers.
I'll be clear: McDavid is too good not to win a Stanley Cup. And he will not go down in infamy as the only generational talent not to win one. If I were a betting man, which I am, I reckon that he'll get the world's most obese monkey off his back before entering his 14th campaign.
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