Some people believe that you need to win a championship to be considered an all-time great in a sport. I think this is especially true in hockey, where if you search for the best players of all time, some of the lists feature players such as Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, and Gordie Howe–all Stanley Cup winners. Other players such as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are knocking on the door–and both Sid the Kid and the Great 8 have each won a Stanley Cup. So where does that leave Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid?
He’s a winner of multiple Hart and Art Ross Trophies, and he’s even won a Conn Smythe. What if he and his fellow teammates on the Oilers, like Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, don’t win the Stanley Cup? Would you rank McDavid in the top 10 of all-time NHL players?
Using Other Sports for Perspective
I started thinking about McDavid’s place amongst the greats after the Oilers lost to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. I still wonder if he’ll be considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time if he and the Oilers don’t win the Stanley Cup. So, I decided to look at other sports including football, basketball and baseball.
I watched Ken Burn’s amazing documentary “Baseball” again for the fourth or fifth time, and I realized that one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Ted Williams, never won a championship, yet that hasn’t seemed to detour fans from placing his name amongst the best players to ever play the game. When I look at the NBA, every single player in the top 10 of ESPN’s 75th Anniversary NBA Team has won a championship ring. In a recent poll of the top 25 NFL greats, only two players in the top 10 had not won a championship: Dan Marino and Barry Sanders. Could McDavid be considered one of the best to ever play hockey, even if he doesn’t win a Stanley Cup?
McDavid Still Has Time to Win a Stanley Cup
There’s been a lot of talk about McDavid’s remarks following the Oilers’ loss to the Panthers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final. At his year-end news conference, McDavid expressed some frustration when he mentioned the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final were “trying the same thing over and over again, just banging our heads against the wall.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a franchise hoping to re-sign their captain in the final year of an eight-year, $100 million contract.
Personally, I hope McDavid signs with the Oilers again and doesn’t have to leave for another market in order to win the Stanley Cup. If fans think a Stanley Cup is out of the question for McDavid, all you have to do is look at one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Jackie Robinson. His Brooklyn Dodgers lost four World Series to the New York Yankees in a six-year span between 1947 and 1953, until finally beating the Bronx Bombers for the title in 1955. The championship was worth everything to Robinson, and Brooklyn held one of the greatest World Series celebrations in MLB history. Who says the same thing can’t happen for McDavid, Draisaitl and the Oilers?
McDavid Will Be Considered One of the Greatest
Whether McDavid can lead the Oilers to their sixth Stanley Cup championship in franchise history or not, he’ll still be considered one of the greatest to ever play the game. Oilers fans are hoping that general manager Stan Bowman can improve the team enough that the Oilers can finally get over the hurdle and win it all.
Related: The 5 Greatest Hockey Players Ever
With a career highlight reel that rivals Lemieux and Gretzky, Connor McDavid is the greatest player of his generation and has earned his place amongst the very best.
