EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid became the fourth player in NHL history to get at least 100 assists in a season when he had one for the Edmonton Oilers in a 9-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place on Monday.
McDavid, who had missed the previous three games with a lower-body injury, reached the mark at 15:35 of the second period when he set up Zach Hyman with a backdoor pass to make it 9-1.
McDavid is the first player to achieve the feat since 1990-91, when Wayne Gretzky had 122 assists for the Los Angeles Kings. Mario Lemieux (114 assists with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988-89) and Bobby Orr (102 with the Boston Bruins in 1970-71) are the other two players to have reached the mark along with McDavid and Gretzky, who did it 11 times.
“It means a lot. Those three are obviously three of the greatest players to ever play,” McDavid said. “To share a little something with them, it means a lot to me. I’m thankful for my teammates, the staff here in Edmonton, the coaches and everybody.
“I feel very grateful for our staff here in Edmonton and all of the players here. It has been a different type of year, but everybody stuck with it and we’ve put ourselves in a good spot heading into when it matters most.”
Hyman, who has played primarily on a line with McDavid this season, scored his 54th goal of the season (his previous career high was 36). He encouraged McDavid to celebrate the milestone despite the score of the game.
“It’s special to be a part of that moment,” Hyman said. “We’ve scored that type of goal a bunch this year, so it’s fitting that was the way. To be a part of it, it’s pretty cool. To be a part of history, only three other guys have done it, and those guys are pretty special players, so it’s pretty cool company.
“Even though it was the ninth goal, it doesn’t matter, that’s just a historic moment, a milestone that three other guys have gotten to and those three other guys are Hall of Fame, once-in-a-lifetime players. So, to be in that kind of company is pretty cool and special and it doesn’t happen often. I think he deserved to have his moment there regardless of what the score was."
After scoring 64 goals last season, McDavid jokingly said earlier this season that he was done shooting the puck after going 10 games without a goal from Feb. 9-26. During that span, though, he had 23 assists, including a career-high six in an 8-4 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 13.
“It was not something that you ever set out saying, ‘I want to do this.’ It just kind of happened naturally,” McDavid said. “I had that weird stretch where I didn’t score any goals but I had a bunch of assists. That was kind of when I was made aware of it. It is not something you set out to do or whatever, it was just a product of playing with some really good players, playing on a good team and putting in a lot of hard work.”
McDavid is third in the NHL with 132 points (32 goals, 100 assists) in 75 games this season. Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche is second with 138 points (51 goals, 87 assists) in 81 games, and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning is first with 142 points (43 goals, 99 assists) in 80 games.
If Kucherov gets one more assist in Tampa Bay's regular-season finale against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, it will be the second time in the League's history that two players got at least 100 assists in a season. Gretzky and Lemieux each had 114 assists in 1988-89.
“It is probably the hardest one that he has accomplished,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “You can’t really be surprised with the things he does every year, but it is an amazing accomplishment. You probably didn’t think it was possible for it to happen in this day and age, but he keeps surprising you. I am very proud of him.
“He went on a roll there of 10-15 games where he just kept racking them up, and then all of a sudden it [100] was possible. Before that you don’t really think about it, you think it is pretty far out of reach. It is crazy that he was able to get it done. He just keeps surprising you. Last year, 64 goals and this year 100 assists. It is definitely hard to come up with enough to say about it. I am definitely happy for him and it is a lot of fun to be part of the ride.”
NHL.com staff writer Derek Van Diest contributed to this report.
