Oilers’ Connor McDavid wins fifth Ted Lindsay Award

The NHL announced early Saturday morning that Connor McDavid has been named the 2025-26 Ted Lindsay Award winner, marking the fifth time the Edmonton Oilers captain has been voted by his peers as the best player in the NHL.

And while I’d love to pretend there’s some big surprise here, there really isn’t, nor should there have ever been any doubt. Connor McDavid is the best player on earth, demonstrated that fact again this past season, and the guys who have to try and stop him from doing his thing on a nightly basis clearly agree.

Being voted on by the players is what makes Connor winning another Ted Lindsay Award so cool. Unlike some other trophies voted on by the media or GMs, this one is voted on by the players themselves. It’s the guys lining up against McDavid, trying to slow him down, and working through the sheer panic that comes with No. 97 hitting full stride through the neutral zone who agreed he was the league’s most outstanding player. Personally, I think it’s different when an award comes from your peers rather than from a group of outsiders who cover the game.

“This award, coming from the guys that you play against every single night and battle against every single night, to have them recognize me with an award like this, means so much,” McDavid said in the video the NHL put out about him winning.

With this fifth Ted Lindsay win, McDavid joins Wayne Gretzky as the only five-time winner in NHL history, adding this year’s trophy to the ones he picked up back in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, and 2022-23. That’s a ridiculous achieved for a guy who ism’t even 30 years old yet. You know you’re doing something ridiculous any time you share an NHL record with the Great One, and McDavid continues to build a resume that feels superhuman even though we’ve all been watching him do it this whole time.

Connor finished the 2025-26 regular season with 48 goals and 90 assists for 138 points in 82 games, winning the sixth Art Ross Trophy in his career. That mark ties him with Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for the second-most scoring titles in league history, trailing only Gretzky’s 10. He also became the third-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,200 career points, getting there in 784 games behind only Gretzky and Lemieux. The point here is that, yeah he should absolutely have won this award.

McDavid beat out Macklin Celebrini and Nikita Kucherov for this year’s Ted Lindsay Award, with Celebrini putting up 115 points for the San Jose Sharks and Kucherov looking for his fourth Ted Lindsay win after taking the trophy last season. Both guys had monster years, but McDavid winning this award for a fifth time is another reminder that his version of elite still belongs in its own category. When Connor McDavid is playing his best, there aren’t many guys out there who can compete.

For Oilers fans, this is one of those moments where we should probably take a second to appreciate what we’re watching instead of letting it pass by like it’s just another day at the office. We’ve seen McDavid do McDavid things so often that it can almost feel like old hat by this stage, but tying Wayne Gretzky for the most Ted Lindsay Award wins ever is definitely not normal. This is another one of those moments where it makes sense to pause and appreciate the good times we’ve had.

Watching Connor McDavid win his 5th Ted Lindsay Award is watching NHL history, and we’re lucky enough to watch it happen in Edmonton. Now to hope the management team around here can do what’s needed to ensure the Edmonton Oilers have more than enough runway with their captain so that he can keep winning these awards under their banner. Congrats, Connor. Never in doubt.