Connor McDavid ‘loses’ title of best player in the NHL

For many seasons, it was the battle between Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby and Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid. With the latter in the lead these past seasons, he might have felt safe at the top, but it wasn’t lonely as McDavid could feel someone breathing down his neck.

On Tuesday, stats put together a clear graph on how Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews has moved in the top spot, meaning McDavid drops down from best player in the league.

Check this out:

Earlier this month, The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn introduced the NHL Player Cards, a quick, digestible data on players from all 32 teams in the league, with “player profile dashboards, quick at-a-glance summaries of relevant player stats — basic or advanced — in an easily digestible manner through data visualization.”

This has allowed fans to dig into all of the data and stats, and on Tuesday it started trending that Matthews was reigning, based on Luszczyszyn’s analysis:

Fans were quick to react to the new “best NHL player” talk, with some thrilled about the new leader, while other simply cannot consider Matthews as a better player than McDavid.

Where do you stand?