Without thinking I would disagree but the numbers and his ability to play at an elite level in both ends I would have to agree. Everything in me wants to say Ovechkin bc I’m very bias and I love him but Stone is a stud.

Yea, I was thinking of immediate, like right now. Although Carlson might be the best Dman right now in the league.

Stone is also 27...

So, how crazy are you gonna go with this? Game by game basis? If some random d man scores a hat trick tonight is he the best d man in the league for a day or something? James Neal a top 5 NHL sniper now? It’s just crazy to disregard entire careers over a dozen games.

Right now he's a top-3 player in the league.

Scoring leaders 2018-19 to date:
1. McDavid 139 points
2. Kucherov 139
3. Draisaitl 131
4. Marchand 121
5. Kane 118

Goal leaders 2018-19 to date
1. Draisaitl 63
2. Ovechkin 62
3. Pastrnak 50
4. Tavares 50
5. Stamkos 50

If we look at the last 3+ years we see that even before he hit his prime Draisaitl was among the league leaders.

Scoring leaders 2016-17 to date:
1. McDavid 347
2. Kucherov 324
3. Crosby 295
4. Marchand 291
5. Kane 284
6. Draisaitl 278

Goal leaders 2016-17 to date:
1. Ovechkin 144
2. Kucherov 124
3. Matthews 122
4. Pastrnak 119
5. McDavid 118
6. Draisaitl 117

Looking at the scoring leaders for the past 3+ years we see that 3 of the guys ahead of Draisaitl are in their 30's and can't be expected to maintain these levels of production going forward. There's no doubt that right now, today, Leon Draisaitl is a top-3 player in the National Hockey League.

I was just basing this off the first 12 games, my list will change for sure if I made a top players for this season. Who is your top Dmen?

Mine would be Jones, Carlson, Slavin, Hedman, Burns or Karlsson, Lindblom, Giordano, Pietrangelo, Dumba, Josi, Ellis, Eckholm, I don't have any Bruins sorry.

Draisaitl enables McDavid to be a superstar. He's much better all-around.

And we're totally disregarding his back to back 68+ point seasons while we're at it

So are you saying that mackinnon isnt a top 3 player rn but drai is? Because thats what this is implying, among many other wrong things

Yes, I'm saying that Draisaitl is ahead of MacKinnon.

https://twitter.com/EvolvingWild/status/1186518996746690560

Younggrens had it as 1: McD 2: Stone 3: Kuch 4/5: Pasta/Marchand. The RAPMs don't super back that up (they have Bergeron as the main driver on the Death Incarnate line), but IMO it's a good baseline. Top 5 is a REALLY high bar, I don't really think Drai has a great argument. If he were really top-5, the Oil would have the best top line in the NHL with him and McD, and they don't.

This isn't to say Drai isn't really, really good. He is! He makes McDavid significantly better and is one of the best scorers in the league. There are strong arguments for him as the 3rd-ish best player from his draft class onwards. It's just that top-5 is really hard to crack in a league with so many incredible players.

There is a LOT more to a player than points production, regardless of what David Staples may say. Scoring metrics will overrate Drai, especially relative to a guy like Stone, for 2 main reasons. Reason 1 is McJesus, reason 2 is that Drai's main skillsets are driving offence and a wicked shot, which both show up in points, while his main weakness (his average defence) doesn't show up at all. Compared to a guy like Stone (who's really good at everything but has usually played on awful teams), Drai's getting a bump from QoT and a bump from all of his skills showing up, while Stone's D is invisible in goals and points.

They don't? Draisaitl and McDavid are running away in the scoring race, and it's not close.