Nine games into 2026-27, Connor McDavid has 26 points. At the same point of 1985-86 — the season that produced the 215-point record nobody has touched in 40 years — Wayne Gretzky had 24.
Here’s the comparison, in a table. We summed both columns from the NHL’s own game logs.
McDavid 2026-27 against Gretzky 1985-86, game by game
| # | McDavid 2026-27 | Pts | Running | Gretzky 1985-86 | Pts | Running | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 29 v VAN | 2 | 2 | Oct 10 v WIN | 3 | 3 | -1 |
| 2 | Oct 1 v VAN | 5 | 7 | Oct 13 v STL | 2 | 5 | +2 |
| 3 | Oct 3 v SEA | 2 | 9 | Oct 16 v NYI | 1 | 6 | +3 |
| 4 | Oct 7 v ANA | 3 | 12 | Oct 18 v BOS | 2 | 8 | +4 |
| 5 | Oct 10 v SJS | 1 | 13 | Oct 20 v LAK | 3 | 11 | +2 |
| 6 | Oct 13 v LAK | 4 | 17 | Oct 23 v WIN | 1 | 12 | +5 |
| 7 | Oct 15 v UTA | 1 | 18 | Oct 25 v CGY | 3 | 15 | +3 |
| 8 | Oct 17 v UTA | 5 | 23 | Oct 28 v CGY | 5 | 20 | +3 |
| 9 | Oct 20 v MIN | 3 | 26 | Oct 30 v WIN | 4 | 24 | +2 |
McDavid has led after eight of the nine games. The largest gap was five points, after game six. He has not had a pointless night yet. Gretzky’s first blank in 1985-86 came in game ten, against Buffalo on 1 November.
What is McDavid’s points pace right now?
Faster than the season that produced the record. McDavid is averaging 2.89 points a game; Gretzky’s 215 came at 2.69 across 80 games, so the gap in the table above is a rate difference, not a hot week. Carried across the 84-game season the new CBA introduced this year, McDavid’s rate is worth 242 points — but see the next section, because that is not the number that decides anything.
Gretzky’s 1985-86 season averaged 2.69 points per game over 80 games. So McDavid is ahead not only on the raw count; he is ahead on the rate—by about a fifth of a point per game.
READ MORE: Auston Matthews’ goals against every NHL team
What does McDavid need to break Gretzky’s record?
Forget the projection. The record is a total, and totals do not care about schedule length.
To beat 215 in an 84-game season, McDavid needs 216 points, which means 190 in his remaining 75 games: 2.53 a game. That is below his current rate, and it is also a higher rate than any player has sustained across a full season since Gretzky himself.
For the 200 mark, the maths is gentler: 174 points in 75 games, or 2.32 a game.
Where the Gretzky comparison breaks down
Both columns are games played, not calendar dates. Gretzky’s season started on 10 October 1985 and ran 80 games; McDavid’s started on 29 September 2026 and runs 84. Lining them up by game number is the only way to compare, and it slightly favors McDavid at the end of the season, where he gets four games Gretzky never had.
It also flatters nobody on era. Teams scored roughly eight goals a game between them in 1985-86. They score around six now. Gretzky’s own splits against every team and McDavid’s show how differently the two sets of numbers were earned.
What the table does prove is narrow and real: through nine games, this is the closest anyone has run to the record season since it happened.
What the rest of the league thinks
The talk started early. Elliotte Friedman has already put a number on it, and TSN’s Bryan Hayes drew his line in a different place.
The table above is the part that can be checked rather than argued. We will add a row after every Oilers game — here is how to watch them.
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