Key Highlights

• Connor McDavid wins Conn Smythe Trophy after a record-breaking postseason.
• The Edmonton Oilers star joins an elite group of players to win the MVP award despite losing the Stanley Cup Final.
• McDavid’s historic performance falls short as the Oilers lose to the Florida Panthers in Game 7.
• Edmonton’s mid-season turnaround under new coach Kris Knoblauch highlighted by McDavid’s leadership.

(NicePlay Sports) – Hockey is often an unforgiving sport, and the latest testament to this harsh reality is Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid. Despite a postseason filled with spectacular performances and record-shattering statistics, McDavid found himself on the losing end in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. His extraordinary efforts earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the entire playoffs, but the ultimate prize eluded him and his team. This bittersweet conclusion places McDavid among a rare group of players who have claimed the MVP honors without sipping from the Stanley Cup. The narrative of McDavid’s stellar postseason is one of triumph and heartbreak, as he etched his name in the annals of hockey history while his team fell just short of glory. The Oilers’ journey, fueled by McDavid’s brilliance and marked by a dramatic mid-season surge, was emblematic of the highs and lows that define the NHL playoffs. As McDavid and the Oilers look to the future, questions linger about what more can be done to finally secure that elusive championship.

McDavid’s Historic Postseason Performance

Back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup Final helped deliver the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. He just won’t get to celebrate it with a championship as the Oilers star forward became the sixth player to get that prestigious award without winning the Stanley Cup. McDavid set a playoff record with 34 assists this postseason and his 42 points ranked fourth best, trailing only two playoff runs by Wayne Gretzky (47 points in 1986 and 43 in 1988) and one by Mario Lemieux (44 in 1991). But he had no points in the final two games and ended up just short of the title after a 2-1 loss Monday night. McDavid joins these players from losing teams to win the Conn Smythe since it was first awarded in 1965: Jean-Sebastien Giguere (2003 Mighty Ducks), Ron Hextall (1987 Flyers), Reggie Leach (1976 Flyers), Glenn Hall (1968 Blues), and Roger Crozier (1966 Red Wings). All but Leach are goaltenders.

The Cruelty of the NHL Playoffs

The Conn Smythe Trophy went untouched on Monday night. That’s because its winner, Connor McDavid, was in the Edmonton Oilers locker room following a 2-1 loss in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. McDavid was brilliant in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He put up gaudy numbers that the NHL hasn’t seen since Wayne Gretzky was carving up the rest of the league. McDavid’s heroics in Games 4 and 5 were probably the only reason we reached a Game 7 in the first place. And yet, McDavid could only watch as rats rained down onto the Amerant Bank Arena ice and the Florida Panthers celebrated their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. That’s the nature of the NHL playoffs. They’re cruel, and often the best players in the world walk away empty-handed, but this loss might sting a little more than usual for McDavid. Consider the way the Oilers began the 2023-24 season. On American Thanksgiving, the typical barometer for playoff contenders, the Oilers were 5-12-1. Their 11 points were only one more than the Chicago Blackhawks and four more than the San Jose Sharks, the two teams at the top of the 2024 NHL Draft. As a result of that slow start, Edmonton fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch, who coached McDavid when he was playing for the OHL’s Erie Otters. After that, the Oilers went on a tear with McDavid leading the way. Edmonton went 46-18-5 with Knoblauch behind the bench, and McDavid finished the season with 100 assists to go along with his 32 goals. Those numbers made McDavid a Hart Trophy finalist, and he might win that award, too. As good as McDavid was in the regular season, there were times throughout the postseason when he was even better. In Game 1 of the first round against the Los Angeles Kings, McDavid made a statement by posting five assists. The Oilers superstar began the playoffs on a seven-game point streak, totaling two goals and 15 assists in that span. In his team’s series-clinching win over the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final, McDavid came up clutch with a goal and an assist. After the Oilers fell into a 3-0 hole against the Panthers, all McDavid did was post back-to-back four-point games to pick his team up off the mat. As he was driving Edmonton on its deep postseason run, McDavid was climbing the NHL record books. His 34 assists are an all-time record for a single playoff season. The rest of the top five? Wayne Gretzky (three times) and Mario Lemieux. McDavid’s 42 points in the 2024 playoffs rank fourth all time. I’ll save you the trouble of guessing the three players ahead of him. It’s Gretzky (twice) and Lemieux. Still, that place in history probably isn’t the one McDavid was hoping to take on Monday night. Those NHL records and the Conn Smythe Trophy are small consolations for the way the season ended.

A Season of Highs and Lows for the Edmonton Oilers

McDavid failed to record a single point in the last two games of the Stanley Cup Final, and he came the length of the crease away from tying Game 7. Late in the third period, McDavid had Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky down and out when Gustav Forsling tied up his stick just before McDavid could slide the puck into the net. That makes this an extremely bitter ending to an otherwise tremendous year for McDavid. His reaction when asked about winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, one of the NHL’s most prestigious trophies, made that clear. “Obviously, I guess, an honor with the names on that trophy but yeah,” McDavid trailed off before fielding the next question. After all the dazzling performances and record-setting point totals, McDavid came up one game short of hockey immortality. Tomorrow, those numbers will go back to zero, and he’ll have to start all over again next season. No one questioned McDavid’s excellence coming into these playoffs, and they certainly shouldn’t question it now. Posting Gretzky-esque stats and becoming just the second skater ever to win the Conn Smythe as a member of the losing team isn’t something we should take for granted. The only lingering question for McDavid after this postseason is, “When?”

The Legacy of Conn Smythe Winners from Losing Teams

The postseason MVP going to a non-champion is much more common in hockey, which hands the Conn Smythe to the MVP of the entire playoffs instead of just the final round as is done in the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball. It has happened once in the championship rounds in those three leagues. NHL Roger Crozier The Red Wings got into the playoffs in 1966 as the fourth seed in a six-team league but upset top-seeded Chicago in the first round thanks to Crozier allowing only six goals in the four wins. Detroit then led Montreal two games to one in the Cup final before Crozier left Game 4 early with an injury. The Red Wings lost that game to tie the series. Crozier returned for the final two games but wasn’t sharp. The Canadiens won in six, but Crozier still got the MVP. Glenn Hall The 1968 playoffs were the first since the NHL expanded from six teams to 12. Hall dominated the expansion half of the bracket by leading the Blues to seven-game wins over Philadelphia and Minnesota, stopping 70 of 72 shots in those two clinchers. Hall kept St. Louis close to the established Canadiens in the Cup final that featured four one-goal games and two that went to overtime. Hall stopped 140 of 151 shots in the four-game sweep by Montreal. Reggie Leach The Philadelphia forward was the only skater to win the award before McDavid thanks to a remarkable scoring run throughout the postseason with a record 19 goals and five assists in 16 games. He scored five goals in the semifinal clincher against Boston. He then scored four goals in four games of the Cup final against Montreal but the Canadiens still swept the series. Jari Kurri tied his mark with 19 goals in 1985 but no one has surpassed it. Ron Hextall The Flyers rookie went 15-11 with a .908 save percentage that postseason and nearly led Philadelphia over Gretzky and the high-powered Oilers in the Cup final. He stopped 61 of 66 shots against one of the most dynamic teams in NHL history to get wins in Games 5 and 6. He stopped 40 more shots in game 7 but the Flyers ended up on the short end of a 3-1 score. Jean-Sebastien Giguere The Ducks entered the playoffs that season as the seventh seed in the West but made it all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final thanks in large part to their goalie. Giguere set the tone by stopping 63 of 64 shots in a triple-overtime win over Detroit to open the postseason. He then shut out Dallas once in the second round and had shutouts in the first three games of the conference final against Minnesota. He added a fifth shutout against New Jersey in Game 4 of the final to improve to 7-0 in overtime that postseason. But he lost 3-0 in Game 7 and got the trophy in an awkward on-ice ceremony in New Jersey in front of the celebrating Devils fans.