Connor McDavid played all 82 games during his second NHL season and scored 100 points. Macklin Celebrini just finished his second season with 115.
Celebrini scored 45 goals and 70 assists in 82 games, becoming the sixth teenager in NHL history to record 100 points in a season. He enters Year 3 with 178 points through his first 152 NHL games and a place in the Art Ross conversation.
Much like the Edmonton Oilers do with McDavid, San Jose runs its offence through Celebrini. He's on the top line, plays on the first power-play unit, and is already by far their best player. His 45 goals last season also put him among the league's leading goal scorers.
Another 100-point season should be the expectation, but an Art Ross season will probably require something in the 125-to-140 range.
McDavid scored 138 points last season, including 90 assists, while already has six Art Ross trophies to his name.
A healthy season from McDavid means whoever wins the Art Ross Trophy has a point total well into triple digits. He has reached 120 points five times and owns a career high of 153.
In Celebrini's rookie season, he scored 25 goals and 63 points in 70 games. In his second season, he scored 45 goals and 115 points. A few things helped, like shooting more, advanced playmaking, more familiarity with an 82-game season, and the general progression that comes from an extra year in the league.
Adding 10 points would mean Celebrini would have 125. points next season. Another 15, and he'll have 130 points. Those numbers would force McDavid and anyone else in the running, like Nathan MacKinnon, to have one of their better seasons to retain the Art Ross.
Nikita Kucherov, MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl should, of course, be watched as well. Like McDavid and Celebrini, all three have produced seasons well above 110 points, and Kucherov and MacKinnon have already won scoring titles.
The NHL hasn't had many players reach this level of production before their 20th birthday, much less a 19-year-old score a 45-goal, 115 point season before he's even been in the league for three years.
McDavid's second season ended with 30 goals, 70 assists and 100 points in 82 games. He won his first Art Ross, Ted Lindsey, and Hart Trophy that year. In his third season, he scored 108 points and won the Art Ross Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award.
This season's Art Ross will score 130+ points. It could take 140.
It might be a 20-year-old blowing through the league for yet another year, or the undisputed best center to ever play the game, or it could even be someone else.
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