Connor McDavid Wins Ted Lindsay Award

McDavid, 29, had another strong season in 2025-26. It says so much about the kind of player McDavid is that after he scored 138 points in the regular season, his family still believed winning the award would come as a “surprise” to him.

It is true that McDavid’s offensive production was not quite at his career-high – he scored 64 goals and 153 points in a legendary 2022-23 campaign – but it was still good enough to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer for a sixth time in his career.

McDavid’s closest competitor for the scoring title, Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov, finished the season eight points behind McDavid.

Today’s news also confirms a bit of history for McDavid – his fifth Ted Lindsay Award ties him with fellow Oilers great Wayne Gretzky for the most wins of the trophy in NHL history. (When Gretzky was playing, the trophy was named the Lester B. Pearson Award.) Since he won’t turn 30 until early in 2027, it’s entirely likely McDavid’s peers will vote him for this trophy another time, or more, meaning today’s news sets him up to break Gretzky’s record at some point down the line.

Of course, that is not the only Gretzky record McDavid is chasing. If he ends up staying with the Oilers beyond the expiration of his two-year contract extension, he is almost certain to reach 1,670 points, which would make McDavid the Oilers’ all-time leading scorer.

In any case, while the individual accolades are certainly a great honor, there is one trophy McDavid is singularly focused on chasing: the Stanley Cup. A championship has thus far eluded McDavid, even though he has already won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

But before he can win a Stanley Cup, more individual accolades are likely on the way. He’s a finalist for the Hart Trophy as league MVP, and that is an award that has very frequently gone to the winner of the Ted Lindsay, though not always.

McDavid has already built a formidable case as one of hockey’s all-time greatest talents. He’s a singular offensive creator who remains unmatched at the top of the NHL in terms of pure playing ability. Today’s win is hardly a surprise, and it could mean he is in line to win a fourth Hart Trophy as well.