If it's possible for a teenage phenom to exceed the hype, then that's what McDavid did in his rookie NHL season with the Edmonton Oilers.

That's saying a lot, because the buildup for the young center, who turned 19 during the season, was considerable. It was more impressive because his was a shortened rookie season; he missed 37 games because of a fractured clavicle but scored 48 points (16 goals, 32 assists) in 45 games.

The smaller sample size knocked him down to third in voting for the Calder Trophy, given to the top rookie in the NHL, but he still tantalized, which was no surprise, since the 6-foot-1, 193-pound center left junior hockey as the most decorated player in Ontario Hockey League history.

McDavid won OHL and Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year honors in 2014-15, his final season with Erie, when he scored 44 goals and 120 points and had an OHL-best plus-60 rating. He also won a second straight Bobby Smith Trophy as OHL top scholastic player. As an OHL rookie in 2013-14, he won the William Hanley Trophy as the league's most sportsmanlike player.

McDavid dazzled scouts with extraordinary acceleration and high-end speed, uncanny on-ice vision and a seemingly endless array of moves. It was a given that Edmonton, which won the NHL Draft Lottery, would select him at No. 1 in the 2015 NHL Draft.

Even in an abbreviated rookie season, McDavid provided plenty of highlights. At the top of the list would be his five-point game Feb. 11, 2016 in his first time facing his hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had two goals and assisted on each of Jordan Eberle's three goals in the Oilers' 5-2 victory.

McDavid took his game to another level in 2016-17. He led the League with 100 points (30 goals, and 70 assists), won the Hart Trophy voted as NHL most valuable player and the Ted Lindsay Award as the most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players' Association to help the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2006.

McDavid signed an eight-year, $100 million extension with the Oilers on July 5, 2017 and repeated as NHL scoring champion in 2017-18, scoring 108 points (41 goals, 67 assists) in 82 games, and winning the Ted Lindsay Award for the second straight season. He didn't win a third straight scoring title in 2018-19 but had an NHL career-high 116 points (41 goals, 75 assists) and finished third in Hart Trophy voting.

In the abbreviated 2020-21 season McDavid torched the NHL, leading the League with 105 points (33 goals, 72 assists) in 56 games. He averaged 1.88 points per game, the most by any player to play at least 50 games in a season since Mario Lemieux (2.30) and Jaromir Jagr (1.82) in 1995-96. McDavid scored at least one point in 45 of 56 games, including 18 with at least three points.

McDavid was voted the winner of the Ted Lindsay Award for the third time and became the second-ever unanimous winner of the Hart Trophy, getting all 100 first-place votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The only other unanimous winner was Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82.

On Nov. 14, 2021, McDavid became the sixth-fastest in NHL history to score 600 points when he had a goal and an assist for Nos. 600 and 601 in a 5-4 win against the St. Louis Blues. Only Gretzky (274), Lemieux (323), Peter Stastny (394), Mike Bossy (400) and Jari Kurri (419) took fewer games than McDavid (421) to reach the milestone.

McDavid scored 123 points (44 goals, 79 assists) in 2021-22, the highest single season point total by an Edmonton skater since Mark Messier in 1989-90 (129 points; 45 goals, 84 assists). He became the seventh player in NHL history to win the Art Ross Trophy at least four times (Wayne Gretzky, 10; Lemieux, six; Gordie Howe, six; Phil Esposito, five; Jagr, five; Stan Mikita, four). He scored 14 points for the Oilers in a seven-game win against the Los Angeles Kings in the 2022 Western Conference First Round, the highest total in an opening round in 29 years and exceeded only by Gretzky (15, 1987) and Lemieux (17, 1992). He became the fourth player in Oilers history with at least 10 assists in a playoff series. Gretzky did it four times and Paul Coffey and Mark Messier each did it once.

McDavid had 33 points (10 goals, 33 assists) in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs with multiple points in 12 of 16 games to become the fifth different player in NHL history with as many in one playoff year. The others are Gretzky (14 GP in 1988, 13 GP in 1985 & 12 GP in 1984), Lemieux (14 GP in 1991), Sidney Crosby (12 GP in 2009) and Evgeni Malkin (12 GP in 2009).

McDavid had a goal and an assist in his 500th NHL game, a 5-4 loss to the Washington Capitals on Nov. 7, 2022. His 724 points were the second-most through 500 games among players selected No. 1 in the NHL Draft behind Mario Lemieux (971 on Feb. 22, 1992).

McDavid became the 22nd NHL player to score at least 60 goals in a season. He scored twice to reach the milestone, including the winner on a breakaway at 1:31 of overtime in a 4-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Place on March 22, 2023. He was also the third player in Oilers history to score at least 60 goals in a season, joining Gretzky (five times) and Kurri (twice). McDavid scored his 300th NHL goal in a 2-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings on March 30, becoming the fifth player in NHL history to score 300 goals and have 500 assists prior to his 600th NHL game, joining Gretzky, Lemieux, Peter Stastny and Bryan Trottier. He also became the first player in NHL history with five 10-game point streaks in one season; Gretzky had four double-digit runs in 1986-87.

On April 8, McDavid scored his 150th point of the 2022-23 season to help the Oilers to a 6-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center, the first time an NHL player had that many since Lemieux had 160 in 1995-96. He finished the regular season with 153 points (64 goals, 89 assists), earning at least one point in each of Edmonton's final 16 games (10 goals, 19 assists). He became a Hart finalist for the fifth time and the second player to win the Hart, Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award in the same season, joining Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals in 1998-99.

NOTES & TRANSACTIONS

• OHL All-Rookie Team (2013)
• OHL Rookie of the Year (2013)
• OHL Second All-Star Team (2014)
• OHL First All-Star Team (2015)
• OHL Player of the Year (2015)
• OHL Playoff MVP (2015)
• NHL All-Rookie Team (2016)
• NHL First All-Star Team (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023)
• Played in NHL All-Star Game (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
• NHL Second All-Star Team (2022)