McDavid reaches 50 goals for 1st time for Oilers

Connor McDavid reached 50 goals for the first time in his NHL career when he scored twice against the Boston Bruins at Rogers Place on Monday.

The 26-year-old forward, who extended his multigoal streak to four games, leads the NHL in goals, assists (65) and points (115) in 61 games this season. 

McDavid is the fastest active player to score 50 goals in a season, passing Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who scored his 50th goal in his 62nd game last season, and the first player in the NHL to score 50 goals before March since Alexander Mogilny, Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr did so in 1995-96.

He is the ninth active player to score at least 50 goals in a season, joining Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (nine times), Oilers teammate Leon Draisaitl (two times), Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning (two times), Matthews, Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Corey Perry of the Lightning.

McDavid also became the sixth active player to have at least 50 goals and 100 points in season, joining Ovechkin (four times), Draisaitl (two times), Matthews, Malkin and Crosby.

Earlier this season, McDavid scored his 40th goal in his 48th game, a 4-2 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 21. It was the fewest games needed to reach the mark by an active player, again passing Auston Matthews, who scored 40 in 49 games last season.

If he scores 10 more goals, McDavid will become the sixth player to score at least 60 goals since 1995-96, joining Matthews (60 last season), Stamkos (60 in 2011-12), Ovechkin (65 in 2007-08), Mario Lemieux (69 in 1995-96) and Jaromir Jagr (62 in 1995-96).

Prior to this season, McDavid’s NHL career high was 44 goals, which he scored in 80 games last season. He is eight ahead of Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak for the NHL lead.

Selected by the Oilers with the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, McDavid leads the NHL with 812 points (289 goals, 523 assists) in 548 games since entering the League in 2015-16. He has won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer four times (2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, and 2021-22), but has never won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the leader in goals.